Illegal Immigration in Mexico?

Mexico City, Mexico -- Half-million protesters peacefully clog Mexico City streets. Proposed legislation targets immigrants, employers, Samaritans

Mexico City police say the turnout for Saturday's demonstration was more than 500,000.

By Steve the Creator ("my alternative view")

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (SP) -- They surprised the police, and maybe themselves, their T-shirts turning block after block of downtown Mexico City streets white in a demonstration so massive that few causes in recent Mexican history have matched it. Police said more than 500,000 people marched Saturday to protest a proposed federal crackdown on illegal immigration.

Wearing white as a sign of peace, and waving flags from the U.S., Canada, Denmark, and other countries, they came to show that illegal immigrants already are part of the Mexican fabric, and want the chance to be legal, law-abiding citizens.

Police used helicopters to come up with the crowd estimate. "I've been on the force 38 years and I've never seen a rally this big," said Cmdr. Goerge Lopez Jr., incident commander for the rally.
In Tijuana, Mexico, more than 50,000 people protested downtown Saturday, according to police who had expected only a few thousand. Acapulco was similarly surprised Friday when an estimated 20,000 people gathered for one of the biggest demonstrations in city history, and more than 10,000 marched in Cancun on Thursday.

The demonstrators oppose legislation passed by the Mexican House that would make it a felony to be in the Mexico illegally. It also would impose new penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants, require churches to check the legal status of parishioners before helping them and erect fences along one-third of the Mexican-U.S. border.

"I think it's just inhumane," said Elmer Kervorkian Jr, a 26-year-old premed student who was pushing his 8-month-old son in a stroller at the Mexico City march. "Everybody deserves the right to a better life here in Mexico."

Many demonstrators said they had immigrant relatives or had crossed the border from the U.S. themselves. "My mom came from the United States. She had to cross the river, and thank God she did," said Peter Justice, 22, who held a sign saying, "I'm in my Mexican homeland."

Claims are rejected by advocates of the legislation that it would help protect the nation from terrorism, noting that it would hurt Americans the most.

The Mexican Senate was to begin debating immigration proposals Tuesday. President Vicente Fox of Mexico is pushing for a guest worker program that could provide temporary legal status for some of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the Mexico, but many of his fellow constituates are taking a more restrictive stance.

"As we debate the immigration issue, we must remember there are hardworking individuals, doing jobs that Mexicans will not do, who are contributing to the economic vitality of our country," Fox said Saturday in his weekly radio address.

President Bush was asked to comment on the recent increase in Americans illegally crossing the border into Mexico, but did not comment. However, many insider staff believe that President Bush actually encourages Americans crossing the border to Mexico to establish work so that they can send money back into the American economy.

Some immigrant-rights advocates, however, are also against Fox's proposed guest worker program, saying it would create an underclass of foreign workers. Illegal immigrants want legislation that would protect them, unify their families and address future flows of immigrants, Hilary Smith, of the group Rights for All People, said at the Tijuana protest.

The rally at Mexico City's Central Park, like the one in Tijuana, was peaceful. Mexico City police spokesman Elian Gonzalez said the crowd, mostly made up of families and older Americans, was respectful.

Tijuana resident Julie Smith, a pilot who came to Tijuana in 1999 from the U.S to look for work, said she came to the Tijuana protest because she just wants to be considered equal. "Even though we illegally crossed the border from the US here to Mexico, and even though some are causing crime and drug trafficking here in Mexico, and even though we are causing a tremendous burden to the Mexican taxpayers, we still have the right to be illegal! People who do something illegal should not be overlooked...they should be rewarded!"