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LEAGUE OF UNITED LATIN AMERICAN CITIZENS National Office |
2000 L Street, NW, Suite 610 PRESS RELEASE |
| For Immediate Release March 4, 2003 |
Contact: Lorraine Quiroga |
Washington, DC-The LULAC Board led by National President Hector Flores held high-level meetings with key Mexican officials in Mexico City to discuss the growing relationship between Mexico and Mexican-Americans. LULAC's working agenda included reinvigorating the US-Mexico bilateral talks on immigration and other critical immigration-related issues - the expansion of Mexico's matrícula program to document Mexican nationals residing in the United States - as well as, the importance of guaranteeing Mexican nationals living in the United States the right to representation in Mexico. LULAC leaders also requested that the Fox administration pay closer attention to the problems in Ciudad Juárez, where over 400 women have been murdered in the past ten years without any resolution. Other issues on the agenda included improving Mexico's and Mexican-American's image in the United States, higher education for undocumented children living in the United States, and the contracting of Mexican-American professionals by the Mexican government and corporations in the United States.
The meetings began on Thursday, February 27 when the Board and key LULAC advisors met first with leaders of the Senate, including Enrique Jackson Rámirez, President of the Senate and Silvia Hernández, Chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, as well as with senate leaders representing the PRI, PRD, and PAN. This meeting was followed by a roundtable with Vicente Fox Quesada, President of Mexico and Dr. Luis Ernesto Dérbez Bautista, Secretary of Foreign Relations, Gerónimo Gutiérrez Fernández, Undersecretary for North America, and Cándido Morales, the Director of the Institute for Mexicans Abroad.
"LULAC and Mexico have made history. For the first time,
we are engaged with the Mexican government working on concrete
themes to create a working agenda that is mutually beneficial
for Mexico and Latinos living in the United States," said
Hector Flores, LULAC National President. "This unprecedented
trip has opened, what we hope will be, an ongoing dialogue to
improve conditions of Latinos in both the United States and Mexico
to enable them to achieve the quality of life that they deserve
and work so hard for, while enlarging the dignity of all Hispanics
in the eyes of the United States."
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the oldest
and largest Latino civil rights organization in the United States.
LULAC advances the economic condition, educational attainment,
political influence, health, and civil rights of Hispanic Americans
through community-based programs operating at more than 700 LULAC
councils nationwide.