Weekly Report - 17 January 2006

Nine Latin American countries took up Mexico's invitation to send their foreign ministers to hammer out a joint response to the hardening of US immigration laws and the accompanying border security measures. They avoided any direct mention of 'the wall' but did hone in on the provision of the Sensenbrenner amendment which would make criminals of all illegal immigrants already in the US. Their first step will be the establishment of a committee to coordinate lobbying against US Senate approval of the bill approved in December by the House.