Transcript
Martin Torres
Head Consul, Salt Lake City Consulate of Mexico
Again, I would like to point out to what I was talking about at the beginning
of the program. This is a very complex issue, so you have to deal with
it at that level. When we are talking about the immigration agreement
that we would like to reach with the United States, we are basically talking
about three issues that are directly related to it and two indirectly
related to that. One of the two that are indirectly related but need to
be tackled is increased security at the border, especially in light of
the events that we all know about. So we have actually taken very concrete
steps. As you all know, President Bush was in Monterrey for the Summit
of Financing for Development, and both presidents met and reached some
agreements to increase security at the border. And now another issue that
needs to be tackled is a pull and a push. This is economics, there is
a high demand for Mexican workers and we have the supply. So why is there
such a high supply and demand to be met? Because Mexicans do not find
enough jobs, or they don't find the jobs that pay them enough to stay
home. So let's try also to increase the opportunities at home so that
they won't be leaving. And we understand that is a long-term process,
but we've got to talk about that, and they have started doing that. Now,
you also have to take into account the realities. We are the neighbors,
if you look at it objectively, we are the most awkward neighbors that
you can find in the world, but we are there. We have differences in economic
development, differences in heritage, differences in history and even
in the levels of economic development. We have differences in the way
we apprehend the world and so forth. And yet, we have to live together.
We have lived together for years and we have been part of each other.
We are starting to state this out in states that used to be Mexican territory
not too long ago. So you have to deal with those realities as well. So
especially now that we have reached such a level of closeness that has
never been reached before, we can't be put into the same barrel as any
other country. We cannot be subjected to the same quota that everybody
else gets. So let's do away with the quota, let's increase the number
of visas, let's talk about learning from the H2 program that has been
developed and is being used in Jackson, WY, for an example. Let's talk
about the guest workers program. If the problem is illegality, and that's
really a big problem as Simpson was saying. They [illegal immigrants]
are the most vulnerable, of course, and that's because they have less
means of protection, so let's try to bring them legally under the guest
worker program. And also let's deal with the reality, this is the toughest
to swallow, that there are millions, as the piece said, millions of Mexicans
that are already here that are part of this economy. They are part of
this country and need to be legalized, and so when we deal with the picture
as big as that, and we decide to walk the path together. Just a few years ago, we were pointing fingers at each other, "Well, it’s your problem . . . [No,] it’s your problem." Well it’s both. We need to sit down in a bilateral dialogue because it is a bilateral problem. Same thing
with immigration. You cannot take unilateral decisions because they are
not going to work entirely. You will solve some problems, you will create
some, so let's talk about how we both can solve a problem that is a long-term
problem and will continue to be. Immigration is there to stay because
it is a fact of economic development among nations. The history of the
world is a history of immigration. We are back and forth, so the only
way to really deal with a very concrete and a very
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