NEWS CONFERENCE WITH REPRESENTATIVE ROBERT MENENDEZ (D-NJ); REPRESENTATIVE CIRO RODRIGUEZ (D-TX); REPRESENTATIVE SILVESTRE REYES (D-TX)

TOPIC: U.S.-MEXICAN RELATIONS AND MIGRATION POLICY

LOCATION: HOUSE RADIO & TV GALLERY, U.S. CAPITOL, WASHINGTON, D.C.

TIME: 12:04 P.M. EDT

DATE: FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2003

REP. MENENDEZ: Well, thank you and good afternoon. I am joined here with several of my colleagues who I think feel as strongly as I do about what happened yesterday in the House International Relations Committee. I'm Congressman Bob Menendez, the ranking Democrat on the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, and the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.

Yesterday afternoon the House International Relations Committee had an opportunity to call on President Bush to live up to his promises and to bring fairness and justice to U.S. Mexico migration policy. The committee had an opportunity to make a positive impact on bilateral relations, by encouraging the administration to conclude a migration accord and to send a bill to Congress to implement such an accord -- a chance for dignity and human rights, a chance for all parties to act in good faith, a chance to improve our countries' relationship, a chance for us to respect the dignity of all migrants regardless of their status, and a chance to pursue a series of migration initiatives over the course of the next six months to a year.

That is what my amendment would have accomplished as part of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act. However, it was substituted by a dubious and deceitful Republican amendment which turned a moment of hope and promise into yet another session of partisan politics, intolerance and disrespect towards our neighbors to the south. The Ballenger Amendment, sponsored by Cass Ballenger of North Carolina, is an effort to undermine Democratic attempts to make the president live up to his promises, the ones he made in a joint communique with President Fox in February of 2001. And as far as I am concerned, the Ballenger Amendment might as well be called the Halliburton Amendment, since it cynically links migration policy to oil. It states that any migration accord between our countries should also include an accord to open the Petroleos de Mexico, or Pemex, to investment by U.S. oil companies. Greater access to Mexico's petroleum sector? What in God's name does that have to do with migration policy? Last I checked, the issue of migration had very little to do with Republicans lining the pockets of President Bush's oil barons.

The amendment is an insult to our relations with Mexico, and is a direct repudiation of the president's promises. It expresses the real feelings of the Republican party and shamelessly exhibits their xenophobia. Republicans appear to be more interested in oil exploration than human relations. Our partners, allies and neighbors to our south deserve better.

We Democrats will continue to work tirelessly to address migration issues in a fair and just manner. We will fight for a migration accord that will encourage new and realistic approaches to safe orderly, legal and dignified migration.

The Republicans, on the other hand, showed their true colors during the debate of their amendment. It is a party that is intolerant, anti-immigrant and inherently anti-Hispanic. We are in essence witnessing the difference between the president's rhetoric and the Republican Party's actions. My amendment was an opportunity to recognize the worth of the farm worker in the south and southwest who puts food and vegetables on our dinner table; the poultry worker in Georgia who plucks the chickens we eat; the construction worker whose labor is fueling the construction industry in North Carolina -- Mr. Ballenger's home state; the nanny who is taking care of our children; and the service workers cleaning the bathrooms and making the beds for our business travelers -- the people who do the hardest work in this country that no one else seeks to do.

So I call on my Republican colleagues not to squander this opportunity to reach a migration agreement, in which the economic, social and security needs and interests of both countries can be achieve.

And before I call on my colleague, I just want to say a few words in Spanish.

(Spanish.)

REP. RODRIGUEZ: (Spanish.) First of all to thank Congressman Bob Menendez for calling this press conference today to highlight just one example of what has become a series of outrageous behavior on the part of the Republicans towards one of the U.S.'s closest neighbor and friend, which is Mexico. Congressman Menendez has been a fierce fighter on behalf of American policy with regards to our friends and neighbors in the Western Hemisphere.

Yesterday during the markup in the Foreign Relations Reauthorization Act, Congressman Menendez offered an excellent amendment directing the president to work on a promise he made at the start of his administration. As this was a promise that was made -- (speaks in Spanish) -- to enter into meaningful negotiations with Mexico on the issues of migration. This was a good amendment, and something the Congressional Hispanic Caucus has always supported and will continue to support. It is the sense of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that the president and the Republican Party have once again lied to the Hispanic community and proven that they do not have a sincere intent of forming a productive relationship with the Latino community in this country and with Mexico. They talk the talk, but when it comes down to the action, they turn their backs on our community. They have failed to acknowledge the contributions that the Hispanic community has made to this country.

And yesterday was yet another example of this. Yesterday in the Republican-controlled House, the party in control refused the opportunity to work in a bilateral fashion for a mutual benefit of all Americans by addressing an issue with our neighbor Mexico. Representative Ballenger epitomized the unilateral approach with disrespect that the administration and the Republican Party has taken in foreign policy.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus has long advocated for an earned legislative program. We will worked with Congressman Gutierrez and the Caucus on Immigration Task Forces on this issue, and we will continue to do that. And we have supported the idea of both President Bush and President Fox achieving short and long-term agreements that will allow us to constructively address the migration and labor issues between our two countries.

But more than two years later, we are not there yet, and this is just another indication of the problems that we have confronted. When we -- when the president chose not to celebrate el Cinco de Mayo -- what is he doing? Is he basically wanting to send a message to Mexico? But he is also sending a message to Latinos in this country. He is sending a message to this country, because part of Cinco de Mayo is part of all of us. When he chooses not to reach out to one of -- the number one trade partner -- if terrorism does anything, it's trying to -- the terrorists are trying to disrupt our economy. And what is the president doing? He is basically disrupting our economy when he encounters our friends in that perspective.

We need to make sure that we hold him accountable for what they are doing. We need to do the right thing. We need to reach out and work with our friends. If we want homeland defense, we have got to make sure that both Canada and Mexico are safe too. We will not be safe if they are not safe. They are our neighbors.

(Speaks in Spanish.)

REP. MENENDEZ: Now Gutierrez Silvestre Reyes, the immediate past chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the chair of the task force of the Hispanic Caucus's International Relations Task Force.

REP. REYES: Thank you, Bob, and good afternoon. It's a privilege for me to be with my colleagues here to point out the disparities between what the White House and this Congress says. On the one hand they want by way of a relationship with Mexico, by wait of fairness and a relationship based on integrity and understanding, and what they actually do. And I think the latest example and the manner in which Congressman Menendez's amendment was handled in the International Relations Committee yesterday afternoon is indicative.

I want to say first and foremost that I share my colleagues' extreme disappointment with what has happened in the International Relations Committee. I like many other members of Congress and observers across the country welcomed the statements from both President Bush and President Fox early in their respective terms that they would work together to reach a migration agreement between the United States and information that would bring normalcy, order and security to immigration issues across both countries, and would bring stability to the border that we have shared in a friendly manner for over 75 years.

Decent, hard-working people who are a valuable part of our economy, as Congressman Menendez stated earlier, and our communities, are currently living and working in the shadows, afraid because they lack proper documentation. It makes sense for all of us to allow the legal residency for people who have worked hard and who have been basically model citizens, and who will continue to contribute to our economy and to our communities. We believe very strongly in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that they have earned the right to legalize here and remain in this country.

Therefore we have been deeply disappointed that the White House has never come forward with an agreement on immigration reform proposal. The last weekend I was part of a group of members of Congress that visited Iraq. I mention that, because as most of us know today the first casualties were Latinos. The first casualties were Latinos who were not yet citizens of this country. And yet night after night after night after night here on the floor, we see Latinos attacked by members of this Congress.

I submit that if President Bush can exercise and twist arms about support for his ill-advised tax cut on the Senate side, he could do the same thing to prevent members of Congress from continuing to slam, belittle and hold up to ridicule hard-working members of our society which if it weren't for their efforts we would not be able to literally eat the food that we eat each and every day.

Here on the eve of the annual meeting between the interparliamentary groups, because the United States Congress and the Mexican Congress, we have yet another example of Republicans saying one thing and doing yet another thing. We have in this morning's Washington Post the headline which read that the United States is after the Iraqi oil. You heard from Bob Menendez that not only did they insult Mexico by substituting his amendment, but then put in a condition that if they wanted this country's cooperation, then they should surrender their oil assets for utilization by our country. We have got to stop this insane and out-of-control attitude on the part of a country that believes that as a matter of public foreign policy bullying is acceptable.

Again, these are real consequences for those of us that believe that there is a better way -- those of us that have been working on putting together a plan that respects the integrity of the process, that Mexico knows and understands -- they see what's going on here on the floor of Congress night after night after night when they and their citizens get attacked in a very negative and xenophobic way by the different members that I think all of us can now identify as mainstays in this terrible attack on Mexico, and by extension on Latin America.

So today we are once again calling on the president of the United States to exercise influence on members of Congress that continue to attack Mexico, that continue to dismiss the contributions -- everything from fighting for this country and dying for this country in the battlefield of Iraq to working every day to make sure that we get our food which we eat.

So, Mr. President, we expect you to weigh in, and we expect you to keep your word that you gave to the president of Mexico and to so many millions of people that deserve the kind of consideration that we as a country when we look at the Statue of Liberty, which is in my colleague's congressional district, we talk about what that symbolizes for our country.

So this morning I'm pleased to be with the chairman of our Caucus and chairman of the Democratic Caucus, member of our caucus here and member of the International Relations Committee, to point out these inconsistencies and hope that the president and his administration and our colleagues recognize that we all have a responsibility to make sure that we treat Mexico and the rest of Latin America with the respect and the dignity that all of us deserve.

(Spanish.)

REP. MENENDEZ: Questions? Preguntos?

Q (In Spanish.)

REP. MENENDEZ: (In Spanish.)

(Q and A continues in Spanish until the end of the press conference.)

REP. MENENDEZ: Muchisimas gracias. Thank you.

END