Calderon Likens Fence To Berlin Wall

(AP)  Mexico's president sharply criticized President Bush's signing Thursday of a bill to build 700 miles of additional fencing on its southern border, calling the move an "embarrassment."

Bush signed the bill, approved by the Senate last month, despite pleas from the Mexican government for a veto.

President Vicente Fox told reporters in the Caribbean resort city of Cancun that the fence would not stop millions of Mexicans from heading north in search of jobs.

"It is an embarrassment for the United States," Fox said. "It is proof, perhaps, that the United States does not see immigration as a subject that corresponds to both countries."

President-elect Felipe Calderon, who takes over from Fox on Dec. 1, agreed.

"The decision made by Congress and the U.S. government is deplorable," Calderon said while on tour in Canada. "Humanity committed a grave error by constructing the Berlin wall and I am sure that today the United States is committing a grave error in constructing a wall along our northern border."

The Mexican foreign ministry later said in a news release that the construction of a wall affects the United States' relationship with Mexico, as well as with Central American countries, from which thousands emigrate northward.

On Wednesday, Mexico, supported by 27 countries, made a declaration at the Organization of American States, expressing their "profound concern" about the plan.

An estimated 11 million Mexicans live in the United States, about half of them illegally.

[gaznabbi]

yu know....i lived in ga. for 3 years as an illegal worker...i was legal in the country though.....travelled back and forth to make sure my visa stayed legal.....georgia to me has a lot of love for mexicans....they appreciate.....belize has a population that is primarily english....so we fair better.....but to me there are more americans that love these people than who want to kick them out.....including yu LOU.

[gaznabbi]

guy in arizona is just another kkk kind of peep using this as an opportunity to make it look like he is just condemning immigration probs.....please what in the world can these poor hispanics do to you when the arabs really want to wipe your white butts off the planet...believe me, the paisanos can help a great deal......they have more bolas than white people............belize in the house

[hsmagst]

To jameskpolka: Wish that it were true that all they want to do is work but you must not live in a city inundated with illegals or you would know that it isn't so. Many illegally enter to have children here so they have a hook into the country, many enter to get free medical care because our laws prevent us from not treating them and the American taxpayer picks up the tab. The list of reasons goes on. And while it is true that many of us are from immigrant stock, in my case as many others, our familys did it the legal way. Applied for permission to enter, went through Ellis Island and then worked hard to become American citizens. That same cannot be said for someone that sneaks across the border......don't ever try to compare the two.

[bellal-2009]

That was pretty good cantshutup. We have been completely taken advantage of by the Mexican government. We have housed, fed, educated, nursed, delivered their babies, and doctored the illegal immigrants when our own citizens are turned away. Then they have the audacity to DEMAND all the rights of a US citizen. That was the end for me. Done. Pull the plug. If they're here illegally send them home.

[wolf563]

I totaly agree with you cantshutup . the only reason they are crying is the loss of the american dollar tax free .

[cantshutup]

Why are you so afraid of brown?
Posted by BinkaJonz

Because "brown" ran through American streets waving their mexican flags. And because "brown" won't learn English, "brown" won't pay taxes, "brown" raises the crime rate where ever "brown" lives, and "brown" wants all the constrution jobs and other jobs that Americans WILL do because some Americans are barely able to make it, and "brown" still holds a grudge about loosing some shriveled up dirt to America...When my great-grandfather came to America in 1912, he learned the language, he PAID TAXES all his life and he was proud to become an American citizen, and he did all that without BREAKING ANY LAWS or climbing over a fence!!! True, immmigrants get cra pped on...as a Hungarian my grandfather was mistaken for German by stupid ingoranuses and harrassed until he changed his last name to sound more Americanized...so yeah, he got cra pped on some but he perservered and although my family is proud of it's Hungarian heritage, we are even MORE PROUD of AMERICAN heritage...this is the greatest country in the world butit can only remain so if we all follow the rules!

[jameskpolka]

Same deal with every American wave of immigrants: 99.99 percent work themselves to an early grave doing our filthiest and most dangerous jobs. A tiny few are criminals -- but the media triples the spotlight on their crimes because they're immigrants, and sprinkles its coverage with innuendo to tar every member of the immigrant ethnic group.

Americans have to grow up. Not only is this how all of us got here one or two or three generations ago, and not only were our grandmothers and great-grandfathers spat on and mistreated (Irish got it among the worst), but all these immigrants provided the raw labor muscle that made America the world's most productive powerhouse economy.

Americans should be proud that for two centuries, when people searched this planet for hope, they found it here. We should turn that pride -- pride in Real Things, not in a colorful symbol -- into a better and more respectful Bienvenido/Welcome. In making ourselves the most powerful economy on Earth, we knew they'd come and we wanted them to come. Let's stop insulting the memory of our own desperate great-grandparents. All these people want to do is work.

[jameskpolka]

Same deal with every American wave of immigrants: 99.99 percent work themselves to an early grave doing our filthiest and most dangerous jobs. A tiny few are criminals -- but the media triples the spotlight on their crimes because they're immigrants, and sprinkles its coverage with innuendo to tar every member of the immigrant ethnic group.

Americans have to grow up. Not only is this how all of us got here one or two or three generations ago, and not only were our grandmothers and great-grandfathers spat on and mistreated (Irish got it among the worst), but all these immigrants provided the raw labor muscle that made America the world's most productive powerhouse economy.

Americans should be proud that for two centuries, when people searched this planet for hope, they found it here. We should turn that pride -- pride in Real Things, not in a colorful symbol -- into a better and more respectful Bienvenido/Welcome. In making ourselves the most powerful economy on Earth, we knew they'd come and we wanted them to come. Let's stop insulting the memory of our own desperate great-grandparents. All these people want to do is work.

IT is an embarassment. Most of the workers that are going to build this wall will have Spanish surnames,and some of them will be illegal. Some of the people who are going to build this wall's families are Mexican from the Texas side. Our country's unwillingness to deal with the corruption in Mexico, no, not deal with it, acknowlege it, that things will NEVER go as planned. At least in Mexico, corruption is a gimme,and always can be figured in. In the US, corruption is never ever planned for, and seems always to be a surprise to Americans. The wall will cost 100x more because of it, the Mexicans will pass thru illegally as usual because of it, and this is a huge Halliburtonesque waste of our time. Make it tranparent, that wall, make checkpoints and know who's comin in. Make the Mexican ID system sync with the American one, and get rid of terrorists, not workers. They will go home more often than stay, if it were easier and it didnt cost em $1800. a pop to get coyote'd in. How many oranges and apples do you have to pick to pay that back?? Shame on you, America. Fear of the unknown always has to show its ugly face. Get real, let the people who's countryside it once was come and go. Let them work and pay taxes,increase the tax base, and prosper, just like your foreign grandparents did. Why are you so afraid of brown?

[agnim]

Calderon is suffering 'embarrassment', and so he should, because he can't take care of his people and they are being shunted by their neighbor. LOL

That's just too bad; but it is better for Calderon to feel a bit of embarrassment than for his neighbor to feel overwhelmed. See, we don't know what some of the crazier and more jingoistic Americans will do to Mexicans if there is not enough sign that things will lessen from Mexico's side.

I myself do not support a 'fence'!


I would prefer a "Great Wall of USA".

With a mere 'fence', the 'coyotes' trafficking people across the border are likely to barrow under a mere 'fence'.