MEXICO CITY - The United States has agreed with a request from Mexico to not prosecute undocumented Mexican migrants affected by Hurricane Katrina who recur to U.S. officials for help, President Vicente Fox said Friday.
“We have agreed with the government of the United States that those who were not documented at the time will not be subject to any pressure or persecution whatsoever,” Fox said during a government event Friday afternoon.
“In this way, they can receive help from the American authorities, they can approach the authorities to point out what they’ve lost and, above all, to ask for support.”
Mexico estimates that about 40,000 Mexicans were living in Louisiana, the majority in New Orleans, which was devastated by the hurricane.
Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said Friday that Mexico would set up temporary consulates near the disaster area to help Mexicans and Central Americans alike affected by the storm. Officials did not have reports of any Mexican deaths, but 87 citizens were reported missing, Derbez said.
He added that Mexico also was ready to send immediate assistance to the United States, but was just waiting for the go-ahead from officials there. The aid will include Navy ships, food and medicine, amphibious vehicles and health and rescue personnel, the foreign secretary said.
Source: mercurynews.com
Mexico's Fox Says U.S. to Give Disaster Aid to Illegal Migrants
Mexico's President Vicente Fox helped persuade the U.S. government to relax controls on illegal immigrants so they can receive aid for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Any of the 145,000 Mexicans living in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama who don't have documents will qualify for help finding family members, getting food and receiving other assistance even if they don't have proper documents, according to Fox's office in Mexico City.
About 11 million Mexicans live in the U.S., more than half illegally. Fox, 63, has responded to the devastation caused by Katrina
Mexico ready to send aid for Katrina relief
As U.S. authorities continue to evacuate areas of the Gulf coast, there are still no Mexicans reported dead.
Mexico offered the United States two Mexican navy ships, 15 amphibious vehicles, two helicopters and 15 heavy trucks on Saturday to help in the relief effort following Hurricane Katrina.
President Vicente Fox said the government had donated US1 million an amount matched by a private Mexican aid foundation for hurricane relief efforts.
"Mexico is a friend (of the United States), and in tough moments, good friends stand together," Fox said. "You can count on our support."
Fox also offered
Illegal migrants had jobs back in Mexico, survey finds
Most illegal immigrants from Mexico had jobs there before they entered the United States, according to a report released Tuesday.
That conclusion undercuts a long-held explanation for illegal immigration: that people can't find work at home. Instead, illegal Mexican immigrants are driven here by a complex assortment of factors, including higher wages, better working conditions and a chance to reunite with growing networks of families who settled in the United States before them, according to researchers with the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington.
"Lack of work does not appear to be the main
Arrested Migrants Repatriated Deep Into Mexico
In 2004, 1.1 million undocumented workers were apprehended at the US-Mexico border, according to researchers at UC Davis. This year the number is likely to be at least the same or possibly even higher. Once apprehended, migrants are deported to Mexico, typically near the border.
In an effort to discourage these people from crossing again, the US and Mexican governments recently began a new program which repatriates apprehended migrants deep into Mexican territory, near the towns where they came from.
Those apprehended and wishing to participate in the new program are given a one-way plane ticket to
Record deaths in U.S.-Mexico crossings
A record 460 migrants died crossing the United States-Mexico border in the last year, the U.S. Border Patrol says.
The toll was pushed higher by unusually hot temperatures and a shift of illegal migration routes through remote deserts.
The death total from Oct. 1, 2004, through Sept. 29 surpassed the previous record of 383 deaths set in 2000, according to Border Patrol statistics.
The dead were mostly Mexicans, many from the states of Mexico, Guanajuato and Veracruz, but also from the impoverished Southern states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, the Los Angeles Times said.
Migrants continue to die in automobile accidents
Will Mexico come clean?
PRESIDENT VICENTE FOX of Mexico took office in 2000 vowing to finally prosecute officials responsible for the deaths, "disappearing" and torturing of hundreds in that nation's "dirty war" of the 1970s. Victims' families have waited for decades to uncover what happened to their loved ones. Although plenty of new findings have come to light, disappointingly little has been done to prosecute those responsible for the illegal repression.
One reason to hope that this might change is a draft of a new report prepared by President Fox's special prosecutor's office. It documents the kidnapping and torturing of hundreds of
Katrina Could be in Gulf of Mexico by Saturday
Most of southeast Florida is under a hurricane watch as Tropical Storm Katrina moves closer to the state. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami have posted tropical storm warnings and a hurricane watch from Florida City just south of Miami north to Vero Beach.
Katrina has maximum sustained winds of 40-miles per hour, but the storm is expected to grow stronger and become a minimal hurricane before it comes ashore Friday morning.
Katrina is expected to emerge over the Gulf of Mexico by Saturday morning and could re-strengthen before making
U.S. flights to Mexico fail to cut migrant deaths
A U.S. government program that returns illegal immigrants to Mexico by flying them deep into the country is ineffective at reducing the number of deaths in the Arizona desert, analysts said on Wednesday.
The Interior Repatriation Program of daily charter flights from Tucson to Mexico City and Guadalajara was implemented in 2004 to cut deaths in the summer months.
Instead of dropping the migrants near the border as is usually done, the program flies them hundreds of miles inside Mexico. The idea was to deter migrants from immediately reattempting to cross the border via
Hurricane Katrina enters the Gulf of Mexico
HURRICANE Katrina passed through southern Florida overnight Thursday and entered the Gulf of Mexico early Friday morning at a point north of and near Cape Sable, in the southwestern Florida peninsula, according to Official Note No. 12 from the Cuban Meteorological Institute’s Forecast Center.
Katrina, after weakening somewhat upon touching land, once again reached the category of hurricane; the storm now has sustained maximum winds of 120 kilometers per hour, with stronger gusts, and its central pressure has gone down to 987 hectoPascal, which is why is remains a Category 1 hurricane on the
Mexicos Fox to see migrants
With the United States planning triple-layered fences along its border and thousands of National Guard troops likely heading south, Mexican President Vicente Fox is northbound -- to Washington state.
Wednesday, with debate over immigration reform and border security roiling Congress and cities across America, Fox will tour a fruit orchard in the Yakima Valley and pay homage to the regions growing Latino population and influence. During later stops in Seattle, hell huddle with Latino business and community leaders.
The message behind the visit: Dont underestimate the importance of Mexican immigration -- both legal and illegal.
More: seattlepi.nwsource.com
