02 June 2003
Powell Says U.S. Wants Movement on Immigration Issues with Mexico
(Secretary expresses regret over deaths of migrants in Texas) (880) By Eric Green Washington File Staff Writer Washington -- Secretary of State Colin Powell says the United States wants to "move forward" on immigration issues with Mexico, adding that the Bush administration's goal is for "people to be safe as they try to find legitimate ways" to enter the United States. At a recent roundtable with reporters where he spoke extensively on the immigration question, as well as about other global issues, Powell expressed regret over the May deaths of 19 illegal immigrants, who died from suffocation after being smuggled in the back of a semi-trailer traveling from Mexico to South Texas. U.S. authorities, calling what happened a "heinous, heinous crime," said all the deaths were due to asphyxiation, dehydration, or heat-related problems. In comments released by the U.S. State Department May 30, Powell told the reporters that one of the great concerns of both the United States and Mexico is "we don't want to see things happen such as has happened out in the desert [in Texas] where people desperate to get in this country" pay smugglers "to transport them illegally across the border and put them at such risk." The secretary said the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States "slowed down all of our efforts, with respect to facilitating [migrant] transit" across the U.S. border from Mexico. "We found out we had to do a better job of securing our borders and securing our people," Powell told the reporters May 27. In accordance with discussions on the subject between President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox, the United States wants to "move forward with an immigration policy" that takes into consideration "the Mexicans already here in the United States and making a positive contribution to our economy, and doing a lot for themselves and doing a lot for the American people," the secretary said. "So we want to work on this, but securing our borders was a principal task we had after 9/11." Powell said that legislatively, "some of the solutions [on immigration] are extremely difficult to get." He said that immigration issues before the U.S. Congress include "regularization" of undocumented workers in the United States, supplying them with worker permits, and reviewing a provision called 245(i) to allow eligible immigrants from Latin America and elsewhere to remain in the United States while making the transition to permanent-resident status. "We haven't lost the vision" on the question of immigration, said Powell. But he cautioned that "it's going to take us a lot more time and a lot more effort." Powell's comments followed President Fox's remarks that the May immigration-related deaths emphasized the need for the United States and Mexico to agree on a new immigration accord, which was being negotiated by the two countries before the September 11 terrorist attacks occurred. Powell said that "it's frankly been unfortunate" that the two countries "haven't been able to move as quickly as we all would have liked to have moved" on the immigration question. President Bush, said Powell, has assured Mexico's Fox on a number of occasions "that we haven't lost sight of what we want to do, but it has proven hard." The secretary said he understands the Mexican leader's desire to move more quickly on immigration, "not only just as a political matter, but as a matter of treating this precious population of Mexican citizens in the right way, so they can come to our country legally and be received and have an opportunity to earn a living and take money back to Mexico and take skills back to Mexico," adding: "They [Mexican immigrants] want to go back to their home. We would like to give them the wherewithal to go back to their home, make it easy to go back and forth, so that they can have a family in Mexico, and perhaps their employment in the United States." Immigration involves "extremely complex and difficult issues" dealing with a lot of "equities and political interests," Powell said. "I say political interests in a good sense, not a bad sense. People are concerned and interested in how we move forward on immigration policy. And it's been that way for many, many years, or else we wouldn't have inherited the difficulties we now have." And "we would like to be more forthcoming with President Fox," Powell continued. "But because of our secure border requirement and some of the legislative difficulties associated with this, we cannot -- we are unable to move as quickly" as the Mexican leader would like. Mexican migrants come into the United States "not [because] of terrorism or [planning] terrorist acts to perform, but in search of an economic opportunity," the secretary said. "And we want to work with the Mexican government to regularize this -- both the movement across the border, and [to] deal with the population that's already here -- and create a set of circumstances where ultimately the Mexican economy will be able to absorb its own workers, and then those people will not have to come to the United States for economic opportunity because we're creating economic opportunity in Mexico." (The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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