February 28, 2005
Reuters
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico will pursue legal action against plans by a U.S. citizens' group to patrol the U.S.-Mexican border in search of illegal immigrants, the country's foreign minister said on Monday.
Luis Ernesto Derbez said he asked lawyers in Los Angeles to draw up a legal strategy to fight the Arizona-based initiative called "the MinuteMan Project" that has signed up hundreds of volunteers for border patrols.
"We are going to attack by all legal means," Derbez told a news conference. "We are presenting the reasons why we consider this action to be incorrect and illegal from the point of view not only of our government but also under U.S. law."
Derbez said he would discuss the issue with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when she visits Mexico on March 10.
Organizers of the MinuteMan project say the U.S. government has failed to stem the flow of migrants across its 2,000-mile southern border, where about a million undocumented immigrants are caught each year, almost half coming through Arizona.
More than a million are thought to get through undetected.
Volunteers from at least 29 states plan to camp out in April on ranches and public land to spot and report illegal immigrants to the U.S. Border Patrol.
The undocumented migrants often risk death from heat exposure or at the hands of people smugglers in their journeys to seek work across the border.
Migration is a prickly issue for Mexico, where the government is growing skeptical President Bush will be able to deliver on his promise of a new migration accord to enable legal, safe and orderly migration.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=7765407