MEXICO CITY Dec 21, 2005 — Mexico's federal Human Rights Commission acknowledged on Wednesday that the country uses some of the same methods in dealing with illegal migrants that it has criticized the United States for employing.

The admission comes as Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez called on Latin American countries to unite against a U.S. House of Representatives bill to toughen border enforcement.

The bill, which passed on Friday with a 239-182 vote, would make illegal entry a felony, and enlist military and local police to help stop illegal entrants.

But officials of Mexico's federal Human Rights Commission acknowledged that Mexico already employs both tactics in its own territory.

"As a matter of fact, (Mexico's) population law does include prison terms for illegally entering the country … and this is something that has been the subject of constant complaints," said Mauricio Farah, a national inspector for the rights commission.

Jose Luis Soberanes, president of the rights commission, said that Mexico also uses many government agencies, such as the police and the military, to detain undocumented migrants, even though Mexican law technically doesn't allow that.

"One of the saddest national failings on immigration issues," Soberanes told a news conference, "is the contradiction in demanding that the North (the United States) respect migrants' rights, which we are not capable of guaranteeing in the South," along Mexico's border with Guatemala.

But Soberanes slammed another provision of the U.S. immigration bill that would build 700 miles of additional fences or walls along the U.S.-Mexico border, calling it "absurd."

The commission also acknowledged that Mexico mistreats many migrants mostly Central Americans who cross Mexico in a bid to reach the United States and called for improvement on that front.

The human rights commission also presented a report on Wednesday that found overcrowding and bad conditions at about three-quarters of Mexico's 51 immigration detention centers and 68 other holding facilities.