Frontera NorteSur

In Washington, the political impact of the 2012 U.S. elections could finally break the legislative logjam that’s stalled immigration reform at the federal level for many years.

As the pro-immigration reform organization America’s Voice noted this month, the elections “made it clear” that the Democrats wield new power but now have to deliver the promised immigration goods, especially to their key Latino electoral constituency. “At the same time, the Republican Party has no other choice but to change on immigration if it wants to rebuild its image with Latino voters… a pro-immigration reform Republican Party could win enough Latino support to remain a viable national party, while continuing to follow the Mitt Romney/Lamar Smith playbook will continue to lose them elections.” America’s Voice contended.

If a national immigration reform does indeed gain traction this year, as America’s Voice and other advocacy organizations predict, it remains to be seen what the particulars will be, what trade-offs on the security/civil liberties front will ensue and how many people will ultimately benefit.

Meanwhile, immigration-related measures continue to percolate at the state level, sometimes in a conflictive manner and sometimes in a cooperative one. While legal battles simmer over the refusal of state governments in Arizona and Iowa to grant driver’s licenses to undocumented young people eligible for the Obama Administration’s Deferred Action program, more debates and possible action loom in the New Mexico State Legislature over the policy of granting licenses to undocumented residents of the state.

In California, a different tone is evident in Oakland, where city councilors recently gave the go-ahead to the issuance of city identification cards to undocumented residents beginning in 2013.

“For a city that is mostly people of color with a large immigrant population, I think it’s important that the local government respond to the needs of all the population in the city,” said outgoing Councilman Ignacio de la Fuente. “An ID card is one of those needs.”

Expected to benefit thousands of people, Oakland’s new identification document will have the extra function of serving as a debit card that links people living in the shadows to the banking system. Manuel de la Paz of East Bay Sanctuary, one of the groups promoting the ID card, praised the official action while adding it would encourage cooperation with law enforcement and reduce robberies of undocumented residents who are reputed to carry relatively large amounts of cash with them.

Oakland joins other U.S. cities opting to provide a local identification card for otherwise undocumented residents including New Haven, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. Similar measures are pending in Los Angeles and Richmond, California.

South of the border, pressure is building for a reform of Mexico’s immigration law and a thorough change in the treatment of migrants, especially Central Americans traveling to the United States. As the new administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto enters its second month, pro-immigrant activists are stepping up demands that Peña Nieto reform the National Migration Institute (INM) or dismantle it altogether.

They accuse the agency of engaging in corrupt practices, applying arbitrary criteria in processing detained foreigners and fostering violence against migrants. Raquel Sevilla, vice-president of the International Association in Mexico for Migrant, Refugee and Asylum Help, cited the example of Arturo Gonzalez, a Spanish citizen who has been detained without legal representation in an INM facility in Mexico City since last June. Contrary to the law, detained migrants like Gonzalez are held “inaccessible in the migratory stations,” Sevilla charged.

Just prior to the Christmas holiday recess, 200 members and supporters of the Mesoamerican Migrant Movement (MMM), mostly people deported from the U.S. and their family members, staged a demonstration outside the Interior Ministry in Mexico City demanding a “cleansing” of the migrant route from corruption and human rights violations.
Rebuffed by a Federal Police blockade, the protesters nevertheless met with Mexican senators and lobbied for the reform of 13 sections of immigration law and the reconstitution of the INM. The MMM also demanded that Mexico drop its visa requirement for Central Americans, and instead approve a new, easier-to-obtain visitor sub-category and corresponding document. Such a status, the group contended, would eliminate the motive for extorting migrants passing through Mexico.

“Central American) countries don’t ask Mexicans who visit them for anything besides a passport, while Mexico denies (Central Americans) a visa,” the MMM said in a statement. No poor migrant can normally obtain a Mexican visa.”

Additionally, the activist group proposed that the INM enjoy autonomy from the Interior Ministry’s policing functions.
In separate but related comments, a Mexican priest whose pro-immigrant advocacy led to threats and temporary exile last year, told the press that President Pena Nieto had a historic opportunity to change the INM or tolerate the existence of a decrepit institution.

“He can continue with what was left him, but with the consequences that we aren’t going to leave him peace, because we are going to denounce over and over again, like we’ve done for years, the gross behavior of INM agents,” said Father Alejandro Solalinde, director of the Catholic-sponsored migrant shelter in Ixtepec, Oaxaca, and winner of Mexico’s 2012 National Human Rights Prize.

“It is said (Pena Nieto) wants to respect the human rights of all migrant persons, as he expressed last December in Los Pinos, but the INM continues to systematically violate human rights, and there is a contradiction,” Solalinde added. “What then, are we playing?”

Frontera NorteSur: on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news Center for Latin American and Border Studies New Mexico State University Las Cruces, New Mexico