Mexico protests border fence, threatens lawsuits over National Guard.

Mexico's foreign minister, Luis Ernesto Derbez, has been decrying and denouncing proposals by the U.S. government to enforce our border, which is annually violated by millions of people--both Mexicans and other nationalities--using his country to enter the United States. On May 16, the day after President Bush's televised address announcing his plan to place several thousand National Guard troops on the border, Derbez told a Mexico City radio station that President Vicente Fox's government would start suing the U.S. government if the National Guard is used in ways disapproved of by Mexico. "If there is a real wave of rights abuses, if we see the National Guard starting to directly participate in detaining people ... we would immediately start filing lawsuits through our consulates," he told radio listeners.

Two days later, on May 18, Derbez announced that Mexico would be sending President Bush a diplomatic note to protest U.S. plans to build fences along portions of the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. "There are 12 million Mexicans on the other side, 12 million people who live every day in anguish about the need for a reform to let them live peacefully," Derbez said.