Wire
services
El
Universal
January
05, 2006
Mexican
lawmakers
will ask
their U.S.
counterparts
to move up
a
scheduled
meeting on
immigration
to
February
from
March,
Mexico´s
speaker of
the lower
house of
Congress
said.
Congressman
Heliodoro
Díaz said
Mexican
senators
and
representatives
will form
a joint
committee
to lobby
the U.S.
Senate to
reject a
bill,
approved
by the
U.S. House
on Dec.
16, that
calls for
adding 700
miles of
fence on
the
U.S.-Mexico
border.
"One of
the first
tasks
would be
to move up
the date,
to not
wait until
March for
the
inter-parliamentary
meeting,"
Díaz said
in a
telephone
interview
in Mexico
City.
Mexican
congressmen
will seek
support
from
legislators
across
Latin
America to
pressure
the U.S.
to drop
plans to
expand the
fence,
Díaz said.
President
Vicente
Fox has
lobbied
the U.S.
to approve
a guest
worker
program
that
allows
Mexicans
to live
and work
in the
U.S.
temporarily,
a program
not
included
in the
House
bill.
"International
public
opinion is
important
to induce
decisions
different
from the
simple
decision
to
criminalize
immigration,"
Díaz said.
About
400,000
Mexicans
cross into
the U.S.
each year,
according
the United
Nations,
to seek
jobs that
pay more
than five
times
higher
than in
Mexico.
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