Deaths put pressure on Fox for migrant pact with U.S., official says

By ALFREDO CORCHADO / The Dallas Morning News

MEXICO CITY – Twice a week, immigrant activist Guadalupe Zamora drives to the most remote communities in her native state of Guanajuato to warn people of
the dangers of crossing into the United States. Wednesday was a day of heartbreak.

As word spread of the deaths of 18 undocumented immigrants in a crowded trailer truck, Ms. Zamora was glued to the Internet, the phone and television waiting for
word of the latest tragedy to grip the nation. Her worst fears were confirmed. Some of the victims, found near Victoria, Texas, appeared to be Mexican; some, she
feared, could be from Guanajuato.

"I feel desperate, helpless and angry," she said. "These are Mexico's youngest, most ambitious, with big dreams and illusions. It's a day of mourning."

Deaths of undocumented Mexican immigrants are all too common along the U.S.-Mexico border. Since 1995, at least 2,500 have died trying to cross deserts and
rivers into the United States. In the last few years, the death rate has been almost one per day.

It has become so routine that the news media in Mexico City initially played down the reports from Texas on Wednesday as some waited for confirmation of the
victims' origins and nationalities. Some were said to be from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, though an official at the Mexican Consulate in
Houston said, "At this point the vast majority appear to be from Mexico."

Read one headline at the bottom of the front page of the afternoon newspaper Ultimas Noticias, "Authorities discover trailer with 16 bodies in Texas."

But as the day wore on, the news became anything but routine. For many, the latest tragedy once again wounded their pride and dignity.

"Poor people," said one radio announcer, "They leave because their country cannot provide them even the most basic of needs. Why?"

Need for change

For the administration of President Vicente Fox, the news was one more reminder that its elusive goal of winning a migration pact with the United States to help
legalize as many as 4.5 million Mexican undocumented workers in the United States remains a priority.

"There will be pressure to change the status quo, which is unacceptable," said a Mexican official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "It's a shared pressure for
both our countries, for immigrant rights groups, for liberals, moderates, conservatives. There is something very wrong here when people suffocate in jammed trailer
trucks. The status quo doesn't work."

Last week, Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez stipulated that national security, not immigration, was the priority for Mexico.

His comments stirred controversy among Mexicans who felt Mr. Derbez was more interested in mending fences than in helping address one of the most pressing
problems for Mexico: the exodus of its people.

The controversy escalated after Mr. Derbez returned as the media touched on the most sensitive of Mexican nationalistic issues: oil.

Action in DC

In Washington, the House International Relations Committee passed a nonbinding resolution that called for any immigration deal to include an agreement to open
Mexico's state oil company, Petróleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, to U.S. investment.

The proposal stirred weeklong criticism from Mexico's political leaders, led by Mr. Fox, who declared that in "no way will [Mexico] accept negotiating that
agreement in exchange for the opening of Petróleos Mexicanos to foreign investment."

But as the news hit Wednesday, some officials interviewed privately wondered whether it would make sense to negotiate oil for an immigration pact.

"On days like these you re-examine your priorities and nationalistic sentiments," a Mexican official said.

Others, like Lolita Parkinson, the coordinator of the Mexicans abroad program for the state of Hidalgo, had a different view. Annually, Ms. Parkinson is assigned the
difficult task of notifying next of kin when deaths occur in the United States. Last year she visited 92 families. On Wednesday, as she waited for orders, she said, "I
have time to reflect."

"This is not about oil and immigration," she said. "This is about demand and supply. America is a nation that's aging, and Mexico has plenty of young people dying to
find a job. Let's stop playing politics and speak the truth. Otherwise this will be another season of tragedy."