Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, the former Mexican ambassador to the United Nations, and the U.N. Security Council's Mexican representative for two years, gave a series of talks in the San Francisco Bay Area in support of the Mexican community here.

During his visit he expressed his views on three subjects of great importance for Mexicans and all immigrants.

The first issue he addressed was the stance the United States took with respect to the UN in the conflict with Iraq: "The United States did not want to see the United Nations as the institution responsible for directing the process of rebuilding Iraqi sovereignty, for providing Iraqis with the means and international capacity to reorganize themselves politically and plan a strong, sovereign nation."

He also expressed his views of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. "I believe that the UN secretary declared that he will not return until it is in the context of a genuine process of reconstruction of Iraqi sovereignty and with a very clear timeline for an end to the occupation of that country."

Zinser responded to President George W. Bush's immigration proposal that would permit immigrants and undocumented immigrants to come to work in this country. "Of course the president's visa plan also has its sights on the presidential election and by its very nature is one-sided. Mexico did not take part in the debate over something that had been proposed by Mexico in the first place. The U.S. has designed an immigration policy but it's unilateral, and as long as it continues to be that way, the problem will persist.

"There is a lot that Mexico has to do to balance out immigration relations between the two countries. Bush's immigration proposal may be a way to introduce security to identify immigrants, or be a three year period after which there is no guarantee that the worker can stay in this country. The worker must also be tied to a contract with an employer, which may result in unfair labor practices and abuses. Congress will have to thoroughly examine whether it wants to create a category of second-class workers that are legal, cheap labor, that could be more attractive for many employers but that could cause serious damage to the American working class. Because this will decrease salaries."

Zinser compared the future of the migrant workers to the immigration proposal itself. "Frankly it's a mystery, since it's still not clear what President Bush's proposal says. The proposal is very general and he hasn't grounded it in specifics. He hasn't even presented a bill to Congress. When he introduces the bill, then we are going to know exactly what it consists of and to what extent it has to do with the migrant worker program, because part of the president's proposal is that it's going to allow Latin American workers to look for work and if they can find someone to employ them in a job that an American can't do, then they are going to invite them to come here temporarily, but they aren't going to grant them the right to stay here. It's going to be a migrant worker program in the strictest sense of the word.

"We want to know exactly what is going to happen and when we have a clear proposal, then we have to respond to it, but I would insist, the first thing we have to have clear is: What does Mexico want? And Mexico has to have its own proposal.

"If the American senators and president present a plan and Mexico says the plan should be the result of a dialogue, well then now Mexico needs to make its own proposal, present its ideas and bring them here to discuss with Mexican communities in the U.S."

Source : http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html? article_id=6b161cf210573eb343b7cc8672a4fe95