Customs Officials Prey on Returning Mexicans

Mexicans returning from the United States, where they had lived illegally, are being met with vague government rhetoric about job openings and by predatory customs officials who solicit bribes at the Mexico City airport.

They are coming back because the new U.S. immigration law, which went into effect Tuesday, calls for fining U.S. employers who hire undocumented foreigners.

Even before Tuesday, workers were returning with stories that they had been fired in anticipation of problems with the U.S. immigration authorities.

For Mexico, any sudden, sizable return of workers could mean social unrest. This country, which has been in an economic recession for five years, offers neither the number of jobs needed nor the wage levels that the workers found in the United States.

On Tuesday, Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid took a defiant position on the new law, saying that the departure of Mexican workers will harm the U.S. economy.

“Let’s see what the Americans say when they don’t have Mexican labor anymore, when their costs go up and they lose their competitiveness,” he told reporters in the city of Puebla.

De la Madrid sought to minimize the immediate effect of the law on Mexico.

“One doesn’t observe massive deportations in the short term,” he said. “We have already adopted mechanisms to protect the rights of our compatriots in the United States . . . as well as to receive those who are deported and to look for productive employment on their behalf.”