In a visit last month, Mexican President Vicente Fox criticized American
immigration policy. In a Senate resolution that died in committee a few days
later, Senator Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Murrieta, returned the favor.

SCR 118 urged Mexico to reform its own immigration policies, which are far
more restrictive than those in the United States. It was treated like a hot
potato in the Senate Rules Committee on May 31. Sen. Jim Battin, R-La
Quinta, a co-author with Hollingsworth, voted for it. Colleague Roy Ashburn,
R-Bakersfield, abstained, as did one Democrat. Two Democrats voted against
it, killing the measure.

Hollingsworth said that the resolution was symbolic, and he never expected
or even wanted to the measure to make it to the Senate floor.

"This is to point out the hypocrisy of Mexico's statements," Hollingsworth
said. He added, "There is not a lot we can do without backing of the federal
government."

The source of that "hypocrisy" lies in Mexico's 1917 constitution. While it
does include one of the same controversial clauses as the U.S.
Constitution--that anyone born on the country's soil is automatically granted
citizenship--those not born in the country face severe restrictions that
immigrants to the United States do not.

For instance, Article 33 states that foreigners may be deported without any
legal recourse: "Federal Executive shall have the exclusive power to compel
any foreigner whose remaining he may deem inexpedient to abandon the
national territory immediately and without the necessity of previous legal
action." It also states that, "Foreigners may not in any way participate in
the political affairs of the country."

Mexicans are also legally given priority over foreigners for employment.
Even naturalized foreigners cannot serve in the military; they also lose
their Mexican citizenship if they move back to their "country of origin" for
over five years.

In one of the more unusual clauses, Mexican women do not have the same power
to confer citizenship to their husbands via marriage as Mexican men enjoy.
Article 30, section B-II, grants naturalization to "a foreign woman who
marries a Mexican man." There is no matching clause for Mexican women and
foreign men.

According to a fact sheet distributed by Hollingsworth's office, "Mexico
routinely fills 10 or 12 buses a day with undocumented Central Americans,"
deporting 240,000 last year alone. It claims Mexico has legalized only
15,000 migrants in the past five years.

Meanwhile, it said, "Mexico has been demanding that the U.S. ignore, alter
or abolish its own immigration laws," even while illegally immigrating into
Mexico is a felony. It added that, "Migrants in the United States have held
huge demonstrations demanding more rights."

In his California appearances, President Fox called for a "new system" to
facilitate movement of people across the border. He also said that efforts
by U.S. hardliners to curtail immigration threaten the relationship between
the two countries.

John Trasviņa, interim president and general counsel for the Mexican
American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said that the economic imbalances
between Mexico and the United States are far more pronounced than those
between Mexico and its Central American neighbors. He called for a
continent-wide effort to address border issues from Canada to Central
America.

"We should not rationalize our policies based on another country's
policies," Trasviņa said. "We are the beacon of opportunity for those
seeking freedom," adding that most other countries don't try to claim that
distinction.

Seven Republicans, including Hollingsworth and Battin, boycotted Fox's
speech. If California Republicans have an issue with Mexico's treatment of
migrants on its southern border, they should have stayed and tried to talk
to Fox, Trasviņa said. However, Assembly Minority Leader George Plescia,
R-San Diego, issued a press release saying they asked to meet with Fox and
were turned down.

"It's ironic that that the same Republican members who showed their
disrespect to President Fox and California's Mexican-American citizens
continue to show to throw gasoline on the fire," said Steve Maviglio, deputy
chief of staff for Assembly Speaker Fabian Núņez. "They have as much
business telling the Mexican government how to operate as the Mexican
government has telling us to run our domestic policy."

One person who saw Fox's speech on the Assembly floor on May 25 was Rick
Oltman, western field director for the Federation for American Immigration
Reform. The speech fit a long pattern of Mexican leaders meddling in U.S.
affairs, Oltman said, going back to former-President Carlos Salinas de
Gortari's comments about Proposition 187 back in 1994. Proposition 187,
which would have denied many services to illegal immigrants, passed but was
held up in the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and eventually died a
negotiated death.

Oltman admitted that many of the Central American immigrants subject to
mistreatment in Mexico were only there while trying to get to the United
States. However, he characterized the Mexican government as a
"male-dominated totalitarian oligarchy" well-known for it's mistreatment of
migrants.

"For them to complain about how illegal immigrants are treated in this
country when the U.N. ought to investigate then for human rights abuses [for
their own border practices] is laughable," Oltman said.

Some in Mexico think the government oppresses the country's own indigenous
population. For instance, the leaders of the Zapatista movement in Chiapas
have referred to the efforts as the latest chapter in a "Mayan uprising"
that has been going on for 500 years.

In Washington, D.C., legislators currently are trying to work out a
compromise between a Senate immigration bill with a far more restrictive
House version. The Senate bill would create a guest-worker program and
define a path to citizenship for the estimated 12 undocumented immigrants in
the country. The House bill contains neither of these provisions, makes
undocumented presence in the country a felony, and would attempt to
significantly add to border security. Closer to home, Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger last week agreed to send 1,100 National Guard troops to the
border at the request of President George W. Bush.

Senator Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, voted against the resolution in Rules,
said his chief of staff, Dan Savage. However, he has avoided being drawn
into the federal immigration debate, Savage said. Cedillo's controversial
bill to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, Savage said, is not a
statement about immigration but rather an effort to deal with its effects.

"Because of federal immigration policy, or lack thereof, the states are left
with the issue of how to deal with the undocumented immigrants," Savage
said.

A representative from the Mexican government did not return multiple phone
calls seeking comment for this article.