Guatemalan president says illegal immigrants in U.S deserve legal protection

Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom said that "his country's discredited police and justice systems need to be 'reordered and disciplined' and that Guatemalan immigrants who are in the United States illegally deserve the same temporary legal protections that have been granted other Central Americans." (From the Washington Post report here).

Speaking in a meeting with Washington Post staff during his first visit to the city since his election, Colom said that more than 7,500 Guatemalans were deported from the United States last year.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Comments

[nativessayno]

So now Calderon & Colom are calling the shots here? Since they are so altruistic, noble and care so much about their countrymen; how about they fix their own nations and we wont be indirectly responsible for their outrageously burgeoning and costly problems anymore.

Oh, I see better to blame the gringos for being "meanies"...that makes sense.

[Chapin]

I agree with the president of Guatemala, Central America has the highest levels of violations on human rights. The corruption is the same from Guatemala all the way to Panama, and furthermore extends to South American countries. As the President has pointed out, the security system "police department and other authorities" are a joke. Personally I think that the United States grants legal protection to anyone who comes from a disturb country, and treats each individual case accordingly.

[edwina]

Why should the U.S. care? Mexico treats illegal Guatemalan refugees worse? Why doesn't the Guatemalan president complain to Mexico first?