Mexico Offers Plan for Dual Nationality System : Immigration: Proposal would allow Mexicans to retain citizenship while obtaining that of U.S.

Francisco Javier Leyva lives in Southern California but drives the 10 miles to Tijuana, Mexico, at least once a week to visit friends and family.

Because his life straddles the border, he would welcome the opportunity to become an American citizen while retaining his Mexican nationality.

“I would like to be a U.S. citizen, but sometimes you just don’t want to lose your Mexican” nationality, said Leyva, 37, owner of a children’s clothing store in the San Diego suburb of Chula Vista.

A proposal by the Mexican government would allow Leyva and as many as 5 million other Mexicans living in the United States to seek dual nationality.

Many Mexicans living in the United States have been hesitant to pursue U.S. citizenship, fearful of losing property rights in Mexico or of severing sentimental ties to the homeland.

But many said they would welcome the plan.

“It would be a great opportunity for Mexican people to go back there and feel like it’s their country,” said Arturo Roehr, 38, who grew up in Tijuana but moved to California 25 years ago. “I feel Mexico should allow us to have . . . the same rights as other Mexicans.”

It would also mean those new U.S. citizens could vote and have a greater impact on what many immigrants consider anti-Mexican ballot initiatives--such as Proposition 187, which denies social services, public education and some medical care to illegal immigrants.

California voters in November approved the measure to deny illegal immigrants all state benefits except emergency health care. But the initiative is tied up in legal challenges and could take years to be instituted.

Jeannette Sanchez, born in San Diego to Mexican parents, predicts dual nationality could give Mexicans in the United States a greater political voice.

“A lot of laws affect them, but they don’t have any say,” said Sanchez, an 18-year-old student. “They pay taxes, so why can’t they vote? There are a lot of things that bother us--like Proposition 187.”

But Ron Prince, a leader of Save Our State, the organization behind Proposition 187, said dual nationality is an attempt to skirt legal immigration laws in the United States.

“If Mexican nationals in the U.S. do not want to become naturalized citizens and give up their Mexican citizenship, we do not want them emigrating to the U.S. anyway,” he said. “If they’re given dual nationality, then they’re not really a legal immigrant.”

And some Mexicans in the United States question the plan.

Diana Reyes, 23, born in Tijuana, Mexico, now lives in Chula Vista as a legal resident. She said she would become an American citizen if she could speak English.

“Either you’re a Mexican citizen or an American citizen,” Reyes said as she walked across the border into Tijuana to visit an uncle. “You can’t be both.”