Tom Tancredo: “it was a little over a year ago that I had the opportunity to visit with a gentleman who was, at that time, the head of…”

“it was a little over a year ago that I had the opportunity to visit with a gentleman who was, at that time, the head of a ministry in the Vicente Fox government in Mexico. His name was Juan Hernandez. Mr. Hernandez was head of a new agency that was called the Ministry for Mexicans Living in the United States. It was interesting that that would be the name of any new governmental entity that had just been created, but that was it, a new agency, the Ministry for Mexicans Living in the United States. In the discussion we had, I found it interesting in that when I asked him specifically what was the purpose of such an agency, he said, well, it was to, first of all, increase the flow of Mexican nationals into the United States. I asked him for what purpose. He said essentially that in doing that the hope was, of the Mexican Government, that it would influence United States policy towards Mexico, because he wanted to have a large number of Mexican nationals living in the United States, but with political, economic, and cultural ties remaining to Mexico. So his job was split between encouraging the flow, on one hand, and then encouraging this connection on the other, a connection that would remain. We talked a little longer. There were two other Members of the Congress there with me that evening. He said something that I thought we were all kind of amazed at. He said, Congressman, it is not two countries, it is just a region.…”