Fri Nov 11 10:46:39 PST 1994
/u3/fpress/prop187

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico denounces 187

Says law is threat to U.S.-Mexico relations, California industry

By Susan Ferriss
Special to the Free Press

SAN FRANCISCO -- In the aftermath of Proposition 187's sweeping victory, the United States ambassador to Mexico denounced the measure as a major threat to U.S.-Mexico relations and a potential new barrier for California industry.

"It is inappropriate, leads to mean-spiritedness, and is inconsistent with our traditions, and I opposed it," said Ambassador James Jones, during a speech Thursday at the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco.

"It threatens to undermine the partnership we have worked so hard, on a bipartisan as well as a binational basis, to build," Jones said. "I believe that the level of rhetoric that has been heard regarding immigration and immigrants has been too high, too shrill, and too negative."

Jones, who has served as ambassador to Mexico for 14 months, said California businesses have already been snubbed by high-ranking Mexican officials offended by Proposition 187.

The new law, approved by 59 percent of California's voters after a passionate and racially divisive campaign, seeks to curb illegal immigration by barring the undocumented from public schools and public health care. It requires schools and hospitals to ask all children and patients for documentation, and gives employees the right to report "suspected" illegal immigrants to federal officials.

Lawsuits were filed immediately declaring the law unconstitutional, and judges issued temporary restraining orders blocking its implementation.

The Proposition 187 campaign focused largely on Latino immigrants, although nothing in the law refers to a particular ethnicity.

Governor Pete Wilson, re-elected by voters in a landslide, strongly backed the proposal and in his campaign repeatedly aired television ads showing Latinos running across the Mexican border with children in their arms.

The ads enraged Latinos here and prompted angry remarks from Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari and other Mexican officials who have been in the forefront of creating strong new ties with California and other U.S. border states.

Jones said California businesses were part of a trade exposition in Mexico City two months ago, and were snubbed by Mexican government officials because of Proposition 187.

"I understand that the California state (trade) office continues to have great difficulty in arranging appointments for Californians wishing to do business there," he said. Jones said his priority as ambassador has been to forge new business ties with Mexico in the wake of the North American Free Trade Agreement and sweeping reforms in Mexico that have thrown open that nation's economy. He said illegal immigration from Mexico will best be curbed by improving Mexico's economy. In the meantime, he said, while the United States has a right and responsibility to protect its borders it should also respect civil rights of the undocumented. Before his appointment to the Mexico City post, the largest U.S. embassy in the world, Jones was chairman of the American Stock Exchange. Between 1973 and 1987 he served as a U.S. congressman from Oklahoma. Jones said Mexicans have been treated to front page news recently focusing on extremist remarks and political tracts produced during California's bruising debate over Proposition 187. Whatever Proposition 187's original intent, he said, "it has fomented a nascent boycott of California products that has played into the hands of those on both sides of the border who trade on stereotypes and antiquated images of our history. "To pass a proposal like 187 when in the first six months of NAFTA alone trade between our countries increased more than 20 percent seems ill-advised," Jones said. "To pass proposal like 187 when during that same period California's exports to Mexico have grown more than 14 percent, approximately $500 million, is also ill-advised." He said European and Japanese investors are "all over Latin America" seeking new trade agreements, and he fears that proposals like Proposition 187 send a message that the United States "is racist." Jones said he has been forced to devote much of his time recently to explaining to Mexicans that California does not represent the rest of the United States. He has also told them the new law might be declared unconstitutional. Texas has been taking full advantage of its relationship with Mexico, Jones told the Free Press, while California seems ambivalent. "Proposition 187 seems destined to undermine the advantages California has through its geography and its long term commercial and cultural ties," he said. "It is perceived -- perceived -- as saying that California neither needs nor wants the good will of its neighbors. That is self-defeating." Jones said the United States needs to review its entire immigration policy, and he is hopeful a new federal commission on immigration will take the lead on that. Asked if he would support the resurrection of a "bracero," or guest worker program with Mexico, Jones said he thinks such an alternative should be part of the national debate on immigration. "There are jobs that Americans don't want," he said. But he would only consider supporting such a program if it did not displace American workers and if wage and other workplace laws were respected.


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