Mexico City – Mexico called Thursday for immigration reform that was “orderly and respectful of human rights” after Arizona announced plans to expand the presence of the National Guard on the border.
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano issued an executive order Wednesday expanding the number of National Guard troops operating along the border with Mexico to fight illegal immigration.
“They are there to provide support to civilian law enforcement at the border. They are not there to militarize the border. We are not at war with Mexico,” Napolitano said in comments published Thursday by the Arizona Republic.
Mexican presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar noted the governor’s statements about not wanting to “militarize” the border region with Mexico’s Sonora state, but he said his country’s government believed that a deployment of troops would not solve the problem of unauthorized immigration.
“Militarization will not solve any problem, we’re against it and reiterate that the issue can only be resolved within the framework of rules that permit migration that is legal, orderly and respectful of human rights,” Aguilar said in a press conference.
Arizona’s Democratic governor declared a state of emergency last August in four counties on the border with Mexico, where crime linked to illegal immigration and drug trafficking was rampant.
At least 1 million Mexicans and other illegal Latin American immigrants try to enter the United States each year along the 3,200-kilometer (1,988-mile) border.
The 2005 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, saw a record 456 deaths among illegal immigrants trying to cross the Mexican border into the United States, with most of the victims drowning in the Rio Grande or succumbing to dehydration in the Arizona desert.
Northern Mexico was racked all last year by burgeoning violent crime, most of it blamed by authorities on feuding bands of drug traffickers.
Drug traffickers operate along different sections of the border, smuggling cocaine, marijuana and other drugs from Mexico into the United States.
In December, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill, sponsored by Wisconsin Republican James Sensenbrenner, that envisions building 700 miles of fences along the border with Mexico, makes illegal immigration a crime – it is currently a civil offense – and calls for prosecuting U.S. citizens who aid illegal immigrants.
The U.S. Senate began debate last week on immigration reform, with the Judiciary Committee that is charged with coming up with a bill deeply divided between those wanting to institute a guest worker program and others who insisted on increased punitive measures for illegal migrants.
Mexico and several other Latin American nations have adamantly rejected the idea of a high fence all along the border.
