The Amnesty Defeat and Mexican Politics by Allan Wall

On June 28^th, in the U.S. Senate, the Bush-Kennedy Immigration Bill, S. 1639 was defeated, by being voted down on a cloture vote.

In Mexico, where U.S. immigration legislation is followed closely, the Senate vote was almost immediately slammed by Mexican president Felipe Calderon, who called it a “grave error”.

This was followed up in Belize, where Calderon traveled to meet with Central American leaders. There, Mexico and all the Central American countries called upon the U.S. Congress to take up the measure again and, presumably, vote their way.

This kind of knee-jerk response to U.S. immigration policy has become quite the norm for some Latin American leaders for whom emigration has practically become a state economic policy .

Even Tony Garza, U.S. ambassador to Mexico and Bush crony, got into the act, releasing a diplomatic statement expressing his disappointment with the U.S. Senate.

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