I am an Illegal Immigrant in Mexico

Hector Vazquez, 36, of Honduras

"There (in the United States), they'll deport you. In Mexico they'll probably let you go, but they'll beat you up and steal everything you've got first."-- Hector Vázquez

Hector Vázquez is an illegal immigrant from Honduras in the country of Mexico. According to Vázquez Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon is a hypocrite. As you know Calderon was recently in the United States castigating the state of Arizona for passing a law that mirrors U.S. Federal law. Both are laws, by the way, which the Mexican President strongly disagrees with.

There are two immediate reasons that Calderon is a hypocrite; one his country treats illegal aliens much worse than his citizens who are illegally in the United States. And two Calderon’s citizens, here illegally, are treated better, economically, lawfully and health care wise in the U.S. than they are treated in Calderon’s own country.

But of course if the president of Mexico is that concerned about how 40 million of his people are treated in a foreign land, well he can always call them back home and provide for their needs.

Mexico's Foreign Ministry said [Arizona’s] law "violates inalienable human rights" and Democrats in Congress applauded Mexican President Felipe Calderón's criticisms of the law in a speech he gave on Capitol Hill last week.

Yet Mexico’s […] law requires local police to check IDs. And Mexican police freely engage in racial profiling and routinely harass Central American migrants, say immigration activists.-- Chris Hawley

In Mexico, according to Chris Hawley's article Activists blast Mexico's immigration law , illegal immigrants receive terrible treatment from corrupt Mexican authorities as reported by people like Hector Vazquez. (see article)

"The Mexican government should probably clean up its own house before looking at someone else's," said Melissa Vertíz, spokeswoman for the Fray Matías de Córdova Human Rights Center in Tapachula , Mexico.

In one six-month period from September 2008 through February 2009, at least 9,758 migrants were kidnapped and held for ransom in Mexico — 91 of them with the direct participation of Mexican police, a report by the National Human Rights Commission said. Other migrants are routinely stopped and shaken down for bribes, it said. -- Chris Hawley

Mexico’s own immigration laws have been draconian and more severely enforced than both the U.S. Federal law and the newly adapted Arizona law at any given point. For the Mexican President to stand next to the U.S. president and condemn a state of the United States of America for passing a law that may or may not have the potential to do what Mexico is already doing is unconscionable.

The United States has already came through its civil rights era whereas the country of Mexico is still presently an active illegal immigrate, civil rights and human rights violator. This is a factor which does not make Mexico’s President a reputable lecturer on civil rights violations to anyone.

In 2008, Mexico softened the punishment for illegal immigrants, from a maximum 10 years in prison to a maximum fine of $461. Most detainees are taken to detention centers and put on buses for home.

Mexican law calls for six to 12 years of prison and up to $46,000 in fines for anyone who shelters or transports illegal immigrants. The Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that the law applies only to people who do it for money.-- Chris Hawley

Hawley further reports that Melissa Vertíz, spokeswoman for the Fray Matías de Córdova Human Rights Center in Tapachula, Mexico, states that in one six-month period from September 2008 through February 2009, at least 9,758 migrants were kidnapped and held for ransom in Mexico — 91 of them with the direct participation of Mexican police, a report by the National Human Rights Commission said. Other migrants are routinely stopped and shaken down for bribes.

Beltrán Rodríguez had arrived in Mexico with 950 pesos, about $76, enough to last him to the U.S. border. But near Tierra Blanca , Veracruz , he says municipal police had detained him, driven him to a deserted road and taken his money. He had been surviving since then by begging.

Abuses by Mexican authorities have persisted even as Mexico has relaxed its rules against illegal immigrants in recent years, according to the National Human Rights Commission.-- Chris Hawley

Hector Vázquez is an illegal immigrant from Honduras in the country of Mexico and like most of the other migrants in Mexico who are Central Americans who are simply passing through on their way to the United States Hector knows that unlike in Mexico once an illegal alien is in the United States he doesn’t have to worry about his civil rights being violated.

Whether he’s in Arizona or in San Francisco California Hector knows he’s never going to be mistreated like he could be mistreated in Mexico.