Group hopes to legalize millions of Mexican immigrants

By Timothy Pratt

Friday, Jan. 17, 2003 | 11:24 a.m.

A group that says it represents hundreds of thousands of people of Mexican descent in the United States is to meet this weekend in Las Vegas to develop a game plan for legalizing millions of undocumented immigrants.

The Council of Mexican Organizations Abroad is scheduled to meet at the Sahara and at area community centers Jan. 17-19.

The council represents about 600 clubs and associations of Mexican-Americans across the nation, said Carlos Villanueva, president of an organization called the Association of Mexicans Abroad and organizer of the effort. About 150 of the council's members will attend the Las Vegas meeting, as well as seven representatives of the Mexican Congress, he said.

The council's goals include obtaining legal residency for an estimated 3.5 million Mexicans who have lived illegally in the United States for five years or more and who satisfy other requirements.

The council also will push for improvement of the educational level of Mexican immigrants, driver's licenses for immigrants and human rights protection for Mexicans crossing the border.

A plan for reaching those goals is to be drawn up at the meeting. Villanueva said the group intends to hire a lobbyist to work on its behalf in Washington.

Some portions of the group's agenda are similar to that of Mexican President Vicente Fox. But the Fox administration has fallen short in its strategy, Villanueva said, pointing to the post-Sept. 11 derailing of Fox's efforts to urge President Bush to focus to immigration reform.

The group also considers the recent resignation of Mexico Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Castaneda "an admission of the failure of its program," Villanueva said.

"The difference," he added, "is that all of us who are putting this together are United States citizens, while Fox is the president of a foreign country."

But local Mexican-American leaders are taking a wait-and-see attitude about the group's goals.

"If Castaneda couldn't achieve (reform), it is going to be difficult for this group to do so," said Eddie Escobedo, publisher of El Mundo, the Las Vegas Valley's oldest Spanish-language newspaper.

Escobedo said he is "cautiously optimistic" about the new group.

Villanueva -- who also owns a consulting company called C & V International that handles marketing and promotion for U.S.-Mexico trade -- is one of 10 businessmen and professionals who are leading the group.

Las Vegas was chosen as a launching pad for the meeting, he said, "in recognition of the Mexican community's huge development (here) ... and the important contribution Mexicans have made to the state."

People of Mexican descent make up about 72 percent of Nevada's 394,000 Hispanics, according to Census 2000.

The spike in the Mexican and Mexican-American population locally compelled the Mexican government to open a consulate in Las Vegas a year ago. It remains the region's only consulate.

Euclides Del Moral, alternate consul for Mexico while consul Berenice Rendon was on vacation this month, said the upcoming meeting was a step forward for the Mexican community locally and nationally.

"The more organized they are, the more benefits they'll achieve," Del Moral said.

At the same time, the official said, government and non-government efforts might work better if joined together.

"It would be more advantageous if our efforts were united in order to reach goals that help the entire community," he said.

The group asked Nevada's senators, Harry Reid and John Ensign, to speak at the conference, but both declined the invitation.

Elias Samorano, a fourth-generation Mexican-American and leisure services coordinator at Las Vegas' Rafael Rivera Community Center, site for one of the council's meetings, said the council was an innovative idea.

"I've seen different groups come and go, but never like this one, that attempts to unite all the different Mexican-American groups across the country," Samorano said.

"Any group that can serve as a unifying force for the sometimes fragmented Mexican community is a positive thing."

Villanueva said the first Association of Mexicans Abroad was founded in 1998, during which time it has given out college scholarships to the children of immigrants and advised immigrants on starting their own businesses. But the council he hopes to get off the ground later this month is a more far-reaching effort, he said.