VZCZCXRO9444
PP RUEHCD RUEHGD RUEHHO RUEHMC RUEHNG RUEHNL RUEHRD RUEHRS RUEHTM
DE RUEHME #2079/01 1971946
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 161946Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY MEXICO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7462
INFO RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/HQ USNORTHCOM
RHMFISS/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MEXICO 002079 
 
SENSITIVE, SIPDIS 
 
NSC FOR O'REILLY 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CVIS PREL PREF ECON PGOV SMIG MX EZ CA
 
SUBJECT:  O CANADA, WE STAND ON GUARD FOR THEE 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  On July 13, 2009, Canada announced that it will 
implement a visa requirement on travelers from Mexico and the Czech 
Republic, effective at 12:01 am, July 17.  The putative reason, 
according to Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is to quell the flow 
of applicants from both countries seeking political asylum who 
reside in Canada at the expense of Canadian taxpayers while waiting 
for the adjudication of their applications.  The Czech Republic has 
already recalled its ambassador and imposed visa requirements on 
Canadian diplomats and "businessmen."  Mexican reaction has been 
less acerbic, although many media and local sources have suggested 
that the change is an indirect U.S. immigration policy carried out 
by its all-too-willing northern neighbors.  END SUMMARY. 
 
LIFE IN A NORTHERN TOWN ... FREE OF CHARGE 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) The imposition of visa requirements on Mexican and Czech 
political refugees has a clear economic motive, as the cost of each 
political asylum seeker to Canadian taxpayers is estimated at 30,293 
USD per annum.   According to Canadian officials, while Mexican 
asylum seekers comprise 25% of all refugee claimants in Canada, only 
10 - 11% of this applicant pool are eventually approved.  Once an 
immigrant claims refugee status in Canada, he is eligible for all 
public benefits, including welfare and work authorization; refugee 
claims can take up to two years to process.  (NOTE: No data is 
available on the percentage of Czech applicants who were approved 
during this same time period, but they are predominantly of Roma 
extraction claiming persecution.  Since the requirements for Czech 
visas were abolished in 2007, about 2000 applicants have sought 
asylum.  END NOTE.)  By the time the claims are adjudicated and 
denied the immigrant has often already established ties in Canada 
(spouse, children, etc.) that allow him to stay in Canada using 
other methods. 
 
IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK ... OR WHAT THEY SAID 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) While many media sources have assumed that the more than 
10,000 Mexicans seeking political asylum in 2008 were fleeing 
drug-related violence, the applicants themselves provided a very 
different reason.  According to a Canadian government source, the 
majority of the Mexican refugees were seeking asylum on the basis of 
persecution due to sexual orientation.  Roma have been historically 
subject to systematic racial persecution in Eastern Europe, but 
homosexuals in Mexico are not generally victims of sustained 
society-wide persecution tacitly sanctioned by authorities. 
Canadian officials stated to ConOff that the coupling of Mexico and 
the Czech Republic was intended to mitigate any charges of prejudice 
against one particular country. 
 
APPLICATIONS AS SLOW AS MAPLE SYRUP 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) The Mexican government reaction was measured, but negative. 
 In a press release on this matter, Mexico's Foreign Ministry 
officially expressed the government's regret over the policy change 
and was quick to blame organizations engaged in smuggling as well as 
the Canadian government's own bureaucracy.  According to the Mexican 
Foreign Ministry's press release, these organizations "have taken 
advantage of the lag time in Canadian political asylum applications, 
whose excessive prolongation provided an attractive means to 
facilitate illegitimate cases."  Akin to smuggling organizations 
aiming to deliver willing and paying Mexicans across the U.S. 
border, according to Mexican government officials, these 
Canadian-based groups are allegedly responsible for the vast 
majority of all the fraud committed, as evidenced by the fact that 
"ninety percent of the cases are rejected."  Official government 
sources say they will continue to try to amend the measure, as well 
as crack down on said smuggling organizations. 
 
SRE's Assistant Director of the Office of Canadian Affairs Deyanira 
Granda Almanza told PolOff that it had been taken somewhat by 
surprise with GOC announcement of the visa requirement.  [NOTE: A 
Canadian Embassy source told ConOff, the Mexican government was not 
warned in advance of this announcement. END NOTE.]  She conveyed 
frustration that the GOC had allowed for such a short window for 
implementation - essentially four days - noting the inconvenience 
experienced by Mexicans who already made plans to travel to Canada 
after July 17 and now needed to obtain a visa.  According to the 
press, the GOC proved unwilling to extend the implementation date in 
response to GOM appeals.  Granda signaled Mexico presently did not 
plan to implement a reciprocal visa requirement on Canadians seeking 
to visit Mexico and was not aware if Mexico planned to raise this 
 
MEXICO 00002079  002 OF 002 
 
 
issue at the upcoming North American Summit. 
 
Mexican politicians took a stronger line in speaking to the new 
requirement.  The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) Head of 
the Senate Political Coordination Committee, Manlio Fabio Beltrones 
suggested that Canadians be required to get visas for Mexico, while 
a senior member of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), 
Carlos Navarrete spoke for many of his compatriots when he termed 
the measure "anti-Mexican." 
 
NO SPANISH, NO WARNING ... THE AMERICANS MUST BE BEHIND IT 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) Reactions from the media and public indicate frustration 
and suggest United States complicity in the decision.  Citizenship 
and Immigration Canada (CIC) has been working to increase processing 
capacity in Mexico City by adding fourteen Canadian diplomats on 
temporary assignment.  Application fees run about 69 USD per single 
entry visa and 138 USD for multiple entries, and with few 
exceptions, the Canadians are not interviewing applicants.  CIC 
plans on expanding its operations to include 60 more locally-engaged 
staff, as well as hiring a service center to help processing. 
Mexican nationals who have visited the Canadian chancery in Mexico 
City in the last couple of days have complained of the short notice, 
"officials who do not speak Spanish" and a certain amount of, 
"mistreatment [of] and disdain" for the applicants.  Others point 
out that when Brazil and Ecuador decided on similar measures in 2005 
a five-week run-up to the implementation of visa requirements 
attenuated any possible pushback.  The Canadian government is also 
asking Mexican visa applicants to provide health and police 
certificates, ostensibly to prove that they neither have a 
communicable disease nor a criminal record, restrictions that strike 
locals as somewhat severe.  Some Mexican media outlets have implied 
that the United States had a hand in implementing this policy, and 
used its influence with its northern neighbor for its own good. 
 
(LESS) NORTHERN EXPOSURE 
------------------------ 
 
¶6. (SBU) COMMENT:  This "July surprise" will clearly fuel the 
short-term tensions between Canada and Mexico, just three weeks 
before Prime Minister Harper travels to Guadalajara for the North 
American Leaders Summit. Ultimately, however, it could improve 
Canadian-U.S. border security.  USG has long been aware that 
numerous Mexican nationals have benefitted from Canada's lack of 
tourist visa requirements to cross into and assume residence in the 
U.S. illegally.  While an uptick in Mexican visa applications to the 
United States is not expected, suspicion regarding the U.S. role in 
Canada's decision will persist over the coming weeks despite our 
public guidance that this is a bilateral affair between two 
sovereign countries. END COMMENT. 
 
FEELEY