Mexico Threatens Suits Over Guard Patrols

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Quigley_Sharps, May 17, 2006.


  1. Quigley_Sharps

    Quigley_Sharps The Badministrator Administrator Founding Member

    CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - Mexico said Tuesday that it would file lawsuits in U.S. courts if National Guard troops on the border become directly involved in detaining migrants.



    Mexican border officials also said they worried that sending troops to heavily trafficked regions would push illegal migrants into more perilous areas of the U.S.-Mexican border to avoid detection.

    President Bush announced Monday that he would send 6,000 National Guard troops to the 2,000-mile border, but they would provide intelligence and surveillance support to Border Patrol agents, not catch and detain illegal immigrants.

    "If there is a real wave of rights abuses, if we see the National Guard starting to directly participate in detaining people ... we would immediately start filing lawsuits through our consulates," Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez told a Mexico City radio station. He did not offer further details.

    Mexican officials worry the crackdown will lead to more deaths. Since Washington toughened security in Texas and California in 1994, migrants have flooded Arizona's hard-to-patrol desert and deaths have spiked. Migrant groups estimate 500 people died trying to cross the border in 2005. The Border Patrol reported 473 deaths in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

    In Ciudad Juarez, Julieta Nunez Gonzalez, local representative of the Mexican government's National Immigration Institute, said Tuesday she will ask the government to send its migrant protection force, known as Grupo Beta, to more remote sections of the border.

    Sending the National Guard "will not stop the flow of migrants, to the contrary, it will probably go up," as people try to get into the U.S. in the hope that they could benefit from a possible amnesty program, Nunez said.

    Juan Canche, 36, traveled more than 1,200 miles to the border from the southern town of Izamal and said nothing would stop him from trying to cross.

    "Even with a lot of guards and soldiers in place, we have to jump that puddle," said Canche, referring to the drought-stricken Rio Grande dividing Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas. "My family is hungry and there is no work in my land. I have to risk it."

    Some Mexican newspapers criticized President Vicente Fox for not taking a stronger stand against the measure, even though Fox called Bush to express his concerns.

    A political cartoon in the Mexico City newspaper Reforma depicted Bush as a gorilla carrying a club with a flattened Fox stuck to it.

    Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, said Tuesday that Mexico accepted Bush's statement that the sending in the National Guard didn't mean militarizing the area. He also said Mexico remained "optimistic" that the U.S. Senate would approve an immigration reform "in the interests of both countries."

    Aguilar noted that Bush expressed support for the legalization of some immigrants and implementation of a guest worker program.

    "This is definitely not a militarization," said Aguilar, who also dismissed as "absolutely false" rumors that Mexico would send its own troops to the border in response.

    Bush has said sending the National Guard is intended as a stopgap measure while the Border Patrol builds up resources to more effectively secure the border.

    In Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas, Honduran Antonio Auriel said he would make it into the U.S.

    "Soldiers on the border? That won't stop me," he said. "I'll swim the river and jump the wall. I'm going to arrive in the United States."
     
  2. ColtCarbine

    ColtCarbine Monkey+++ Founding Member

    It's about time NG troops are being sent to the border, only a few years too late but at least it's happening. However, it seems their mission is only to observe rather than protect the border, doesn't make much sense.
     
  3. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    And that is a problem how? For humanitarian reasons? Seems to me that the humanitarian thing to do would be to stop them before they start. Where is Fox on this?

    To do what? Why do I think all they are going to do is keep the illegals safe from the bandidos known to inhabit the area , and hand them off to coyotes on this side of the border?
     
  4. sniper-66

    sniper-66 Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    Let them sue us for having the Guard on the border and we can countersue them for not having the Guard on the border. Even trade! I find it funny that the only thing they can do is threaten law suits!
     
  5. E.L.

    E.L. Moderator of Lead Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    It is insane. Suing a country for guarding their border. For too long the Fox has been guarding the henhouse. I think the Minuteman, Ranch Rescue, and other civilian patrols are starting to bring some attention to it. Keep it up, and keep the pressure on. One other piece of advice, check and see how your senator voted on the senate immigration bill. Vote accordingly. It is crap. The House version is what we need.
     
  6. BRONZ

    BRONZ Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    " its a mad house"
     
  7. TLynn

    TLynn Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    Do we really care??? [raspberry]

    I mean come on...if Mexico is really concerned about their citizens they'd patrol their own border and stop them from trying to cross. So I think we should sue them. :lol:
     
  8. E.L.

    E.L. Moderator of Lead Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    Arizona already has, no response yet.

    Glad to see you back TLynn, you have been gone too long.
     
  9. Quigley_Sharps

    Quigley_Sharps The Badministrator Administrator Founding Member

    [ditto]
     
survivalmonkey SSL seal        survivalmonkey.com warrant canary
17282WuJHksJ9798f34razfKbPATqTq9E7