TUCSON, Ariz. -- Citing concern about a growing anti-migrant climate in Arizona, the Mexican government is creating a telephone call center in Tucson to take complaints and assist its citizens when they run into problems.The call center, expected to open next week, is the first of several that will eventually be set up in cities near the U.S.-Mexico border.For now, the call center will take complaints only for cases in Arizona. If it is successful, Tucson's call center will serve as a model for other call centers in other states, said Juan Manuel Calderon Jaimes, the Mexican consul in Tucson. "Mexican consulates in Texas and California have started working together and holding meetings to build a common goal," he said."It is in response to the demands of Mexicans living here in the U.S.," Calderon Jaimes said. "The call center for Arizona will serve our most vulnerable population, the undocumented."He said the effort grew out of a directive issued earlier this year by Mexico's president, Felipe Calderon, that all the Mexican consulates in the United States use their protection programs to develop a response to new laws aimed at illegal immigrants, like the Arizona employer sanction law.Calderon Jaimes said the call-center concept grew out of meetings held between the five Mexican consulates in Arizona.Calderon Jaimes said he knows that the call center may be controversial, but that it is a much-needed service."This is a Pandora's box, because we don't know how it will resonate, we don't know what the response will be or the impact it is going to have," he said. "We are trying to ensure our people feel they benefit from the embrace of the Mexican government and that we are addressing their problems."The Tucson call center will operate a 1-800 number providing service 24 hours a day and will be staffed by nine people who have received special training to receive and process reports from Mexican citizens, particularly those here illegally.The call centers will focus on helping those who have run into problems on the job, or with U.S. and Arizona law enforcement, said Calderon Jaimes. The goal, he said, is to provide an immediate response to issues that include domestic violence, detentions, human-rights abuses, accidents on the job, and immigration issues like obtaining visas.Some migrant advocates, like Raquel Rubio-Goldsmith, with the Binational Migration Institute at the University of Arizona, applauded the news that Mexico is dealing with the issues its citizens are facing. "I think it's great," she said. "The repatriation issue (as an example) is bad."Walt Staton, spokesman for No More Deaths, hopes migrants won't be afraid to make reports. He's also interested in seeing how U.S. government agencies like the Department of Homeland Security will respond, and whether it and other agencies will make a commitment to follow up on the complaints.Opening a call center like this suggests that there is a lot of misconduct, a lot of abuse that never gets reported; or if it is reported, it is not investigated accurately, he said."I'm curious about how much the consulate can do, especially with the Department of Homeland Security", he said. "It just seems it's a good idea; I just hope it actually accomplishes something."The United States needs to be vigilant and ensure that while "we are enforcing our immigration laws, that we treat people respectfully, that we do so in accordance with laws," said Ira Mehlman with the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group that favors stricter immigration policies. But he insisted there is no evidence that there are wholesale abuses taking place.The call center is a further example of the Mexican government's attempts to interfere in a domestic policy of the United States, he said."They simply don't recognize or accept the fact that the United States has the right to impose its immigration laws," he said.For the U.S. Border Patrol, one of the agencies with which the Mexican Consulate works most closely, the call center is an opportunity to improve cooperation.The call center could help in processing of information in an emergency, said Mario Agundez, a member of the Border Patrol's Search, Trauma and Rescue (BORSTAR) unit, which is responsible for numerous rescues of migrants in their attempts to enter the U.S. illegally.The call center will be run by live operators because the main objective is that callers feel comfortable talking to someone in their own language in a cordial atmosphere."(We want) the call-center staff to provide a response, so people don't have to leave messages on an automatic telephone system," said Calderon Jaimes.The person answering the telephone call will be trained to take the report and direct the concern to the appropriate official at whichever of the five Mexican consulates in Arizona has jurisdiction.E-mail Mariana Alvarado at mavalos(at)azstarnet.com(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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