There is no shortage of criticism of our immigration laws from detractors who contend that they are unjust and immoral. And though criticism of U.S. immigration laws can be fierce – particularly in the case of Arizona’s SB 1070, the Support our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhood Acts – Mexico’s much harsher immigration laws rarely get noticed. Upon Arizona’s passage of SB 1070, critics attacked the law with claims of racial profiling. Among the opponents were the open border lobby, including the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF), other liberal interest groups, President …
The March 3 working meeting between Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon and U.S. President Barack Obama loomed as a showdown over Mexico’s sputtering war against crime and increasingly prickly relations between Mexico and the U.S. The encounter, however, took a sunny turn when the two presidents agreed to focus on trade, regulation, and energy issues rather than come to dagger points over Mexico’s seemingly out-of-control crime war. The presidents agreed on a plan to settle a long-standing dispute over a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) commitment to allow a limited …
Today, President Barack Obama will welcome Mexican President Felipe Calderon to the White House. As Senior Latin American Policy Analyst, Ray Walser, aptly described in his latest WebMemo, the atmosphere will be tense given the February 15 murder of U.S. immigration agent Jaime Zapata and recent Wikileaks revelations from the U.S. embassy in Mexico City questioning the coordination and effectiveness of Mexico’s security team dealing escalating violence and bloodshed because of narco-violence. And yet, there are so many critical issues at stake of mutual concern for both countries beyond the …
In December 2006, Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon launched a campaign against Mexico’s drug-trafficking organizations. That war continues to rage four years later. In a violent and visible confrontation that began on December 9, 2010, the Mexican federal police delivered a punishing blow against La Familia Michoacana, a dug trafficking cartel with cult-like aspects. Mexican authorities believe Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, a.k.a. “El Chayo,” was killed in the action. Moreno was the “Family’s” second top commander. In the last year, Arturo Beltran Leyva, Edgar Valdez Villareal (a.k.a. “La Barbie”), and Antonio Ezequiel …
In his speech before a Joint Session of Congress yesterday, President Felipe Calderon of Mexico made a bold claim. He asserted that: Just to give you an idea, we have seized 75,000 guns and assault weapons in Mexico in the last three years. And more than 80 percent of those we have been able to trace came from the United States — from the United States. The media immediately picked up on this claim. As Reuters summarized the President’s remarks: [He] said more than 80 percent of [the guns] came …
It isn’t easy being Arizona these days, especially when President Barack Obama puts politics before Americans’ interests, a foreign head of state before the United States, and an agenda of apology before much-needed, sensible reforms. But that’s just what happened this week when Mexican President Felipe Calderon visited Washington, DC. President Obama extended a warm hand to Calderon and demagogued Arizona’s illegal immigration law all in the name of politics. Standing in the White House Rose Garden with Calderon, President Obama took the unprecedented step of publicly siding with Mexico …
Mexican President, Felipe Calderon, is set to address a joint session of Congress today to address issues of mutual interest on both sides of our almost two thousand mile border. Among the issues that will likely dominate Calderon’s prepared remarks will include the ongoing drug violence engulfing Mexico and threatening to spill over to our border states even more. But beyond this critical issue of mutual concern, rest assured that Mr. Calderon will use this opportunity to speak about immigration. Mr. Calderon will likely talk about the thousands of men, …
When the Miami Herald‘s Andres Oppenheimer interviewed Mexican President Felipe Calderon last week, he was surprised to hear Calderon defend NAFTA by stressing how abandoning the treaty would hurt the U.S.: Contrary to Obama’s claim that NAFTA has hurt American workers by moving U.S. jobs to Mexico, Calderón said that the free-trade deal has brought about more investment, and better-quality products and lower prices for consumers both in the United States and Mexico. He immediately addressed the possible consequences of a renegotiation of NAFTA for the United States. … Big …
