Mexican archdiocese welcomes removal of jail time for migrants

Published: 2008-05-01

MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- Catholic officials in Mexico City welcomed the elimination of criminal penalties for undocumented migrants, many of whom pass through this country on the way north to the United States. "It is without doubt a great humanitarian advance," the Archdiocese of Mexico City said in a written statement to Catholic News Service. The statement added that the federal government frequently chides its northern neighbor for the mistreatment of Mexican migrants in the United States, but "violates the human rights of undocumented Central Americans." Most of the illegal migrants in Mexico originally come from Central and South America. Lawmakers said the decriminalization of migration would provide Mexico with increased moral authority when lobbying against anti-immigrant initiatives that would endanger the well-being of undocumented citizens in the United States. "We have been demanding that the U.S. authorities ... not criminalize the migrant situation in the United States," said Fernel Galvez, a federal deputy from Chiapas, a state sharing a porous border with Guatemala. "But we haven't been acting very congruently since Mexico has been criminalizing immigration."

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