Then about two years ago the trickle swelled to a flood with groups of thirty to well over a hundred people at a time pouring across the border, hurrying through alleys, through people's yards and between their houses, climbing over roofs and clambering over graves in the cemetery. Most of the budget is essentially completed, but three spending bills remain in limbo with disputes over education, immigration, abortion and other high profile issues. The United States and Mexico agreed Friday that future administrations in both countries should promote immigration policies respectful of human rights and create conditions for the exchange of workers across the border. At the end of discussions on immigration issues that started Thursday in Mexico City, experts from both countries concurred that the bases necessary to improve cooperation on immigration issues have been established over the past six years. The seminar was attended by INS Commissioner Doris Meissner , among others.
Immigration is one of the thorniest issues in relations between the United States and Mexico.
INS Jamal Rashid has no passport, no birth certificate, no driver's license and no record of employment. In decades of moving through a half-dozen countries, he left no trace. But when he stowed away on a ship to Houston two years ago, he started a paper trail that now fills boxes. He claims he is from Eritrea, in northeastern Africa, born to Ethiopian parents. He can't prove it.