June 17, 2003

Memo From Mexico, By Allan Wall

Police Cooperate With Immigration Authorities - In Mexico!

If the U.S. ever gets serious about immigration control, it has to improve cooperation between state and local police and immigration authorities – the way Mexico does.

As James Edwards showed on VDARE.COM recently, present policy is an inefficient - and dangerous - muddle. Many believe that local police officers are forbidden from enforcing U.S. immigration law. That, in fact, has been reported on the news - on Mexico's TV Azteca!

Why can’t local police officers, in the normal course of their duties, detain illegal aliens? Contrary to TV Azteca, they can. But in far too many cases, they are impeded from doing so.

Sometimes it’s the fault of immigration authorities, who frequently instruct the local police to release illegal aliens they have detained.

Sometimes it’s a local police chief or city official. For example, the mayor of North Charleston, S.C., Keith Summey[Send him mail at Mayor@northcharleston.org], has reassured “Hispanics” (the new code word for illegal aliens) that the North Charleston police are not interested in enforcing immigration law: “We’re not here to see if their green card is in order.”

Another interesting impediment - federal regulations require higher standards for the imprisonment of illegal aliens than they do for U.S. citizen criminals!

The Mexican government, needless to say, is strongly opposed to U.S. police enforcing the immigration law. It could make Mexico’s stealth amnesty program, its matricula consular campaign, irrelevant.

Thus on June 3^rd (La Opinion – California, June 4^th, 2002) five Latino state legislators (Marco Antonio Firebaugh, Simon Salinas, Manny Diaz, Nell Soto and Robert Pacheco) met in the state capitol in Sacramento with five Mexican consuls. Topics included the matricula consular and driver’s licenses for illegals. Gustavo Mohr, a representative of the SRE – the Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Relations – that is, a foreign government official addressing American legislators - described the proposal that local American police enforce U.S. immigration law as “worrying.”

“Worrying,” indeed!

As in so many other cases, however, Mexico demands one policy from the United States and practices another policy itself.

The Mexican government may be horrified at the prospect of American police enforcing immigration law – but here in Mexico, it’s a different story. Not only do Mexican police enforce immigration law, but they are specifically required to do so by Mexican law.

Check out Mexico’s Ley General de Población [“General Law of Population” – the body of law governing Mexican immigration], Capitulo III, Articulo 73:

Ley General De Población

Capítulo III Inmigración

ARTÍCULO 73

Las autoridades que por ley tengan a su mando fuerzas públicas federales, locales o municipales, prestarán su colaboración a las autoridades de migración cuando estas lo soliciten, para hacer cumplir las disposiciones de esta ley.

For you non-Spanish speakers, that means:

“The authorities who, by virtue of law, exercise a mandate for public enforcement [the police] at federal, local or municipal level, shall provide cooperation to immigration authorities when said immigration authorities request it, to comply with the provisions of this law [the General Law of Population].”

It’s very clear. And not only does this policy exist in the law books: it is enforced.

Some recent examples:

In the vicinity of Ecatepec, north of Mexico City, state police under the jurisdiction of the state Attorney General (Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado de Mexico, PGJEM) arrested and detained 8 illegal alien Hondurans they encountered on the street. (El Universal Feb. 15th, 2003)

In the state of Hidalgo, a joint operation carried out by the state police, municipal police and the INM (the Mexican immigration agency) detained 50 Central American illegal aliens traveling in a train. (El Universal, Feb. 18th, 2003)

In the state of Mexico, near the spectacular Teotihuacan ruins north of Mexico City, state police of the Seguridad Pública Estatal detained 50 illegal aliens hidden in a railroad car. The illegal aliens were Central Americans: 35 from Honduras, 14 from Guatemala, and one from Nicaragua. The state police were assisted by municipal police, who blocked exits in case of an escape. Now there’s teamwork! The article reported that the captured illegal aliens were turned over to immigration authorities “for deportation to their country of origin.” (El Universal Feb. 20^th, 2003)

On March 19^th, 20^th and 23^rd, Mexican marines, manning their inspection stations in Chiapas, took into custody 91 Central American illegal aliens: 38 Guatemalans, 29 Hondurans, 23 Salvadorans and 1 Nicaraguan. All were turned over to Mexican immigration authorities. (El Universal March 25^th, 2003)

In the state of Hidalgo, on May 30^th, 2003, the Dirección General de Seguridad Pública y Tránsito de Hidalgo detained 56 Central American illegal aliens (including 29 Hondurans, 5 Guatemalans, 1 Nicaraguan and 1 Salvadoran) in the train station El Irolo, municipio of Tepeapulco. They were turned over to the INM. (El Universal May 30th, 2003)

So Mexican police are required by law to cooperate with immigration authorities - and they do. The standard procedure: when Mexican police capture illegal aliens, they turn them over to immigration authorities, where they are processed and deported to countries of origin.

It’s amazing, isn’t it?

Notice above, in example #2 that Mexican police can engage in joint operations with immigration authorities. Notice in #4 that the Mexican military also helps enforce immigration law.

Mexican poverty is always cited as a justification for illegal Mexican immigration to the United States (though in my opinion it fails to help Mexico anyway). But Central American poverty does not dissuade Mexican authorities from deporting Guatemalans, Hondurans, Salvadorans and Nicaraguans - whose countries are poorer than Mexico!

Mexico recognizes that immigration law enforcement is part of law enforcement in general.

It's logical, it's consistent, and it's just plain sound public policy.

I have written before that Mexico has a better voter registration system than we do.

Let the record also state that Mexico has a much better system of cooperation between the police and law enforcement authorities.

Our southern neighbors have provided us with a fine example, haven’t they?

Let’s emulate it.

Never let it be said that Americans are too proud to learn from Mexico!

American citizen Allan Wall lives and works legally in Mexico, where he holds an FM-2 residency and work permit, but serves six weeks a year with the Texas Army National Guard, in a unit composed almost entirely of Americans of Mexican ancestry. His VDARE.COM articles are archived here; his FRONTPAGEMAG.COM articles are archived here; his website is here. Readers can contact Allan Wall at allan39@prodigy.net.mx.