Stephanie Jackter - 12-21-2003 at 02:12 PM
AM EST
NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico (AP) -- The holiday trip home for many Mexican migrants has become easier as President Vicente Fox has moved to protect families
on the annual trek that used to be plagued by police demanding bribes and confiscating gifts.
Fox has made changing government officials' attitudes toward migrants one of his top priorities since taking office in 2000.
He has focused on the annual trip home before Christmas, when most migrant families return to Mexico, clogging highways with pickup trucks and sedans
overflowing with bicycles, television sets and computers.
Fox, who started his six-year term on Dec. 1, 2000, has tried to make sure the holiday trip home safer by strengthening the Paisano program, a
14-year-old federal plan to safeguard the migrants' return.
But while many migrants said the changes have made the trip home better, others found plenty of reason to stay north of the border.
Undocumented workers, for example, are staying in the United States because illegal crossings have become harder and more dangerous under increased
security measures.
Paisano program director Florencia Martinez said 1 million migrants made the trek home last year during the holidays. Numbers for this year won't be
available until late January, but Mexican customs officials say there has been less traffic compared to previous years.
Most of the migrants crossing earlier this week were legal U.S. residents.
They included the Reyes family, traveling in a three-car caravan laden with gifts. Donato Reyes, one of 11 family members on the trip, says Fox's
improvements have made a difference in his family's annual trek from West Virginia to the central state of Guanajuato.
"In the last three years, the changes have been visible," said Reyes, a construction worker driving a truck crammed with plastic bags stuffed with
clothes. "Now, the services are much faster, and your complaints are tended to. You even have police officers asking to accompany you."
For the second year in a row, police have organized migrants into caravans and guided them through the city to ensure they are not mistreated or
robbed.
To discourage corruption at the border, Fox's government has posted more than 1,000 independent observers at major crossings, from the Pacific coast
to the Gulf of Mexico. Migrants can call government hot lines to report harassment.
"We in the government know how hard life can be abroad, and that's why we have created the Paisano program, to protect the rights of our fellow
citizens and give them our support when they return to Mexico," Fox said Saturday during his weekly national radio address.
The president is expected to make his annual trip to the border on Thursday to greet returning Mexicans on the country's Day of the Migrant.
Even so, some migrants say that police still prey upon them in central Mexico, beyond the focus of the Paisano program.
Fox reached out to Mexicans living in the United States during his presidential campaign and after taking office. He has strengthened Mexico's U.S.
consul system and often calls migrants "national heroes."
"He is the only person who has spoken for the undocumented migrants," said Cristina Reyes, a factory worker in West Virginia waiting to get a
government import permit for her family's van. "Maybe what he is promising is all lies, but at least he is talking about it."
Yet some complain that Fox's inability to achieve a migration accord with the United States means he has fallen short on his promise to be the
president of all Mexicans, both at home and abroad.
"His term is almost over, and it's a shame he has achieved nothing," said Maria Mendiola, who works in a lumber factory in Georgia and was traveling
with her husband and sister-in-law.
Mendiola, 37, and her husband crossed into the United States illegally. They plan to return north in a few weeks.
"He promised to create jobs here, but where are they?" Mendiola said. "For the undocumented, our president hasn't done much."
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved.