A legal defense fund in Mexico for undocumented immigrants in the U.S.?

Carlos Olamendi, Coalition representative from San Clemente, CA

A group of advocates from the U.S. and Mexico have asked Mexican President Felipe Calderon to create a special fund that would provide legal defense for undocumented immigrants who have been detained, deported, and separated from their families. the group: Coalición por los Derechos Políticos de los Mexicanos en el Extranjero (CDPME)
(Coalition for the Political Rights of Mexicans in the U.S.)

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Piden activistas a Calderón crear fondo para defensa de migrantes en EU

Organizaciones no gubernamentales demandan además un programa de empleo temporal para los connacionales deportados.

José Antonio Román
Publicado: 07/02/2008 20:53
La Jornada - Mexico City



México, DF. Organizaciones de migrantes urgieron al presidente Felipe Calderón Hinojosa crear un “fondo especial” para la defensa legal de inmigrantes contra redadas, separación y despidos masivos, además de una crear programa de empleo temporal para los inmigrantes deportados.

Ante la próxima visita de Calderón a Estados Unidos, prevista del 10 al 14 próximo, las organizaciones encabezadas por la Coalición por los Derechos Políticos de los Mexicanos en el Extranjero (CDPME) consideraron que el presidente debe responder con hechos y no con discursos a las leyes antiinmigrantes que están siendo aprobadas en ese país.

Este ataque no se da sólo con las redadas, la separación de familias y despidos en el trabajo, sino también en los medios de comunicación en los que se ataca a los indocumentados y también a México.

Carlos Olamendi, representante de la Coalición en San Clemente, California, y Luis E. Pelayo, fundador y presidente de Concilio Hispano, en Chicago, Illinois, señalaron que también es necesario coordinar con organizaciones de migrantes mexicanos el cabildeo a favor de una reforma migratoria justa en Estados Unidos.

En tanto, Primitivo Rodríguez, coordinador en México de la CDPME, señaló que México debe predicar con el ejemplo e impulsar una amplia reforma migratoria en territorio nacional.

Con base en una amplia consulta con migrantes, académicos y especialistas, Primitivo Rodríguez propuso llevar a cabo una reforma migratoria integral. “Hoy en día, México es el país donde más se violan los derechos humanos, laborales y civiles de inmigrantes centroamericanos y de otras regiones”, dijo el dirigente.

Por otra parte, pidió no excluir a los migrantes de las celebraciones patrias, sino por el contrario, integrar a escritores, académicos y artistas migrantes en los actos conmemorativos del bicentenario de la Independencia y el Centenario de la Revolución.

Hasta el momento se les ha excluido, a pesar de que ambas conmemoraciones tendrán un fuerte impacto entre los migrantes, además, planteó incluir en los libros de texto de primaria y de secundaria la historia del pueblo migrante, junto con la historia del pueblo mexicano en territorio nacional.

for link to article click the title of this post

photo: http://www.memociones.com/images/olamen.jpg

Calderón: Mexican Migrants are Thematic Hostages

Mexican President Felipe Calderón













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Mexican Leader Sees Bias in U.S. Politicking;
Stop Disparaging Migrants, Calderón Says
Manuel Roig-Franzia; Washington Post Foreign Service

Nov. 14, 2007

Mexican President Felipe Calderón took the unusual step Wednesday of injecting himself into U.S. presidential politics, calling Mexican migrants "thematic hostages" of the race and urging candidates not to use them as a talking point.

Speaking at a conference here, Calderón criticized what he called "the growing harassment" of Mexicans in the United States and said his administration would finance a media campaign to underline immigrant success stories.

Calderón made his remarks one day before his environment minister, Rafael Elvira Quesada, is scheduled to release a report concluding that the U.S.-Mexico border wall is damaging the environment.

Calderón's statement on the U.S. presidential race caught many people here by surprise. Addressing delegates at a conference sponsored by the Mexican government agency that assists migrants, he said: "It is my duty to make a respectful but firm call to the candidates of the various political parties in the United States for them to stop using Mexicans in that country as thematic hostages of their speeches and their strategies."

Calderón has frequently criticized U.S. immigration policy, as do many Mexicans. But it is unusual for a Mexican president to make such a direct comment about U.S. presidential campaign strategies.

Immigration has emerged as a hot-button issue in the 2008 presidential contest, consistently ranking high on the list of voter concerns and figuring prominently in debates. Immigration also tops a list of issues that voters in the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses want candidates to address, according to a CBS-New York Times poll released Tuesday. And 44 percent of caucus-goers want illegal immigrants to lose their jobs and leave the country, the poll said.

A poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press released two weeks ago found that 65 percent of Republican voters and 50 percent of Democratic voters ranked illegal immigration as a "very important" issue.

Republican candidate Fred Thompson has proposed taking federal grant money from so-called sanctuary cities in the United States that do not report illegal immigrants to the federal government. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) has run television ads saying migrants cross the border "to take our jobs."

The potency of the immigration issue has been highlighted by the furor over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) speaking favorably about a plan to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants in New York state. Some analysts have said Clinton's recent drop in the polls was caused in part by her comments about the license plan, which was dropped Wednesday by Democratic Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer of New York.

Given the national focus on immigration, it is very unlikely that candidates would heed Calderón's call, Michael Dimock, associate director of the Pew Research Center, said in a telephone interview.

"Good luck," Dimock said of Calderón's plea. "It's a potentially powerful voting issue for a significant segment of the electorate."


photo: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Felipe_Calderon.jpg