Immigration Reform 2013: In Mexico, ‘Border Surge’ Seen As Affront By Many

A comprehensive immigration reform bill's passage in the Senate with 68 votes on Thursday has been widely welcomed by immigrant advocates in the United States for provisions which would extend the offer of legal status and a path to citizenship to millions of the nation's undocumented. But in Mexico, the home country of at least 6 million of the estimated 11 million undocumented, the "border surge" amendment which would allot $46 billion for border surveillance, detection and apprehension has earned the bill disdain on the Mexican side of the border.

"Neighbors don't do this to each other," Univision news anchor Jorge Ramos wrote in a column in the newspaper Reforma.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has not broken his silence on the debate in the US except to say that his administration supports immigration reform. But last week, after the border surge amendment was passed, Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Meade told reporters that "fences don't unite".

"Fences are not a solution to the migration phenomenon, and they are not congruent with a safe and modern border," Meade said. "They don't contribute to the development of a competitive region that both countries are trying to build."

RELATED: Border Surge Amendment Passes With 67 Votes

Among tenets of the "border surge": an additional 350 miles of "pedestrian" fencing specially designed to frustrate potential crossers (to make 700 miles' worth in total under the bill), another 20,000 Border Patrol agents (doubling the number), and $3.2 billion of high-powered surveillance and detection technologies including drone aircrafts.

RELATED: Immigration Reform Passes Senate With 68 Votes, Faces Tough Road In House

According to the Washington Post, Lorenzo Meyer, a respected columnist and academic who hosts a national radio show, joined the chorus of protests in suggesting that Mexico respond by expelling US intelligence officials working with Mexico in the fight against drug cartels or, alternatively, by refusing to accept any more American retirees.

RELATED: New 'W' Visas Could Help Integrate US-Mexico Economies [INTERVIEW]

In an interview with El Pais, four Mexican intellectuals - a professor, historian, ex-ambassador and novelist - expressed opposition to the bill's border security measures, agreeing that they constituted an "affront" to Mexico.

Animal Politico also interviewed Nancy Pérez, the director of Sin Fronteras ("No Borders"), an immigrant advocacy group based in Mexico. Pérez questioned what the role of governments in primary sending countries like Mexico or others in Central America would be when it came to helping migrants obtain documents required for citizenship and other legalization measures. "Sending countries aren't considering this type of support for its co-nationals, and this could mean a second filtering-out of those who, even if they qualify, won't be able to get citizenship because of lack of support from their countries in facilitating passports, birth certificates, and other identity documents that they will ask from them," said Pérez.