MONTERREY, Mexico – Mexico's president on Wednesday criticized the U.S. decision to complete a wall along the border and use drones to increase security, calling it "disgraceful and shameful."
On Monday, a U.S. judge lifted the final legal obstacle for the completion of a border fence along the Mexico-California border. Plans call for two additional fences running parallel to the existing steel barrier, with sensors and cameras tracking any movement.
The fences will run along the final 3 1/2 miles of the border before it meets the Pacific.
"This situation we're seeing, a disgraceful and shameful moment where walls are being built, security systems are being reinforced, and human and labor rights are being violated more and more, won't protect the economy of the United States," President Vicente Fox said.
"It would be hard to know what would happen to the economy of the United States if it wasn't for the enormous contribution, the productivity, the quality of work of our countrymen in that country," Fox added.
Last month, President Bush said he was providing border agents with cutting-edge technology like surveillance drones and infrared cameras. In October, Bush signed a $32 billion homeland security bill for 2006 that included 1,000 additional Border Patrol agents.
Speaking in the border city of Reynosa, where he welcomed migrants home for the holidays, Fox said he was hopeful the United States will approve a temporary guest worker program next year. Reynosa is across from Hidalgo, Texas.
Bush has proposed a temporary guest worker program that envisions having most workers return home after up to six years working in the United States. Mexico wants a more permanent, legal residence for many of the millions of undocumented Mexicans living and working in the United States.
"What the United States needs is a young (work) force, energy, quality, productivity, which is what keeps that economy competitive and is the only way it can stop losing jobs to Asia, to China," the president said.
Fox was in Reynosa supervising the Paisano Program, a government effort to clamp down on corrupt public officials and to welcome Mexican migrants home for the holidays as he has done every year since 2000.
His government has posted more than 1,000 independent observers at major crossings and installed hot lines for migrants to report abuse.
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