That went well… NOT!

Manuel Roig-Franzia writes in the Washington Post (buried on page A-18):

…

In an editorial published Friday, the Mexico City newspaper El Universal said it is “highly hypocritical that the United States admits migrants as peasants, but does not accept them as citizens. A state that sends troops to the Middle East to try to implant democracy and respect for human rights does not practice such supreme values in its own territory.”

But the paper also ascribed blame to Mexico, saying the country is itself guilty of hypocrisy for not creating enough employment to entice Mexicans to stay at home.

…

Reaction to the immigration bill’s failure might have been even more intense if not for concerns here that it put too heavy an emphasis on border security and involved overly complex provisions on granting citizenship to undocumented migrants, said Dan Lund, a Mexico City pollster.

Despite some heated comments from Mexican leaders, it appears the Calderón administration has adopted the philosophy that “no bill is better than a bad bill,” Lund said in an interview.

“Life goes on,” Lund said. “Here this is a hothouse issue for a few in the media and policy wonks, but everyone else will do what they have to do to get across the border.”

…

In Guatemala, the newspaper Prensa Libre described the Senate vote as “deplorable” in an editorial headlined “12 Million Victims.” The vote, the paper said, showed that the United States is “a country hostile toward immigrants.”

Prensa Libre predicted that the decision would hurt the economies of the United States and Guatemala by restricting the flow of people between the countries. But, the paper noted, there could be a subtler, even more damaging effect.

“Little by little, the number of people who lose their appreciation of [the United States] will grow,” the paper said. “With what happened yesterday, everyone loses, sooner rather than later, and there are fewer possibilities of healing that wound.”

Of course it was buried… the only thing that matters in the U.S. is how it plays as domestic politics. Who really cares what happens to those of us who live on the border, our civil rights, or the people who immigrate here?