Guest Column
Biden: Blame immigration woes on Mexico
Biden: Blame
immigration woes on Mexico
By Jim Davenport
The Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Nov. 28, 2006 - Sen. Joe Biden, the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee's incoming chairman, wants to get tough with Mexico,
calling it an "erstwhile democracy" with a "corrupt system" responsible for
illegal immigration and drug problems in the U.S.
Biden, D-Del., was in Columbia on Monday in his first postelection trip to
this first-in-the-South presidential primary state as he continues to line
up support for his presidential bid.
During a question-and-answer session before more than 230 Columbia Rotary
Club members, Biden was asked about immigration problems.
Biden, who favors tightening the U.S.-Mexico border with fences, said
immigration is driven by money in low-wage Mexico.
"Mexico is a country that is an erstwhile democracy where they have the
greatest disparity of wealth," Biden said. "It is one of the wealthiest
countries in the hemisphere and because of a corrupt system that exists in
Mexico, there is the 1 percent of the population at the top, a very small
middle class and the rest is abject poverty."
Unless the political dynamics change in Mexico and U.S. employers who hire
illegal immigrants are punished, illegal immigration won't stop. "All the
rest is window dressing," he said.
An even bigger problem are illegal drugs "coming up through corrupt Mexico,"
he said. "People are driving across that border with tons, tons - hear me -
tons of everything from byproducts for methamphetamines, to cocaine, to
heroine."
Covering a variety of topics, Biden kept most of the crowd in their seats
for an hour - twice as long as scheduled.
"I warn all of you, all of you making more than a million bucks - I hope you
all are - I'm taking away your tax cut," Biden said. "I'm not joking."
The extra revenue would generate $75 billion a year and pay for a backlog in
national security and local law enforcement programs, Biden said.
Biden's appeal for bipartisanship captured Bruce Rippeteau, a former Rotary
president who says he's in the Genghis Khan wing of the Republican Party.
He "was saying some important things in a nonpolitical way," Rippeteau said.
"I want to compliment him about what he didn't say," Wilson said. "He never
one time mentioned weapons of mass destruction."
Biden will lead the Foreign Relations panel because Republicans around the
nation lost seats in the Nov. 7 elections. That tide didn't reach
Republican-dominated South Carolina, where the GOP maintained its four U.S.
House seats and Democrats kept their two.
© 2006 The Associated Press.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed by HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com) without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)