Legal Counsel Alejandro Alday: Good morning and thank you for coming.

On behalf of the Foreign Ministry, I would like to explain some aspects of the press release we published this morning in connection with an announcement made by the United States government about a bilateral issue.  As you know, the U.S. government made an announcement that was communicated to the Mexican government this morning at 8 a.m. in which the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) informed us that, based on its immigration law, it is interested in invoking a measure to immediately return non-Mexican individuals to our country where they would wait until able to resolve their immigration status before a U.S. immigration judge.

The intention of the DHS is that these individuals would enter Mexico after having been evaluated by U.S. immigration officials and they would remain in our country until they have a date to return to the U.S. for a hearing with the immigration judge who had previously been involved with the case.

We would like to be clear: this measure is based on the sovereign right of the United States to determine its immigration policy and the Mexican government has been paying close attention to its implementation for a long time.  So, what is the Mexican government going to do? Just as we recognize and respect the sovereign right of the United States to determine its immigration policy, for our part, also as a Sovereign state with our own laws, we too determine in a sovereign and independent manne --based on our Constitution, migration law and our international treaties--how to implement Mexican legislation to receive some of these non-Mexican migrants involved in immigration proceedings in the United States.

The Mexican government's main interest is to provide protection to these individuals involved in immigration proceedings who are going to be returned by the U.S. government based on a decision that it has already taken.

Why are we going to provide them with protection? First of all, because this unilateral measure puts them in a situation of tremendous vulnerability and the Mexican government is committed to protecting the human rights of individuals in that situation, people who could be at great risk if we don't help them here.

Therefore, the Mexican government will receive some of these people and provide them with all of the protection and rights provided by the Mexican Constitution and our migration law.  And, fundamentally, it will do this is for humanitarian reasons.

As you are aware, this immigration policy was explained yesterday. It is based on two pillars: the first is respect for human rights, and the second one is development.

This migration policy that was announced yesterday in the Interior Ministry is also aligned with the United Nations Global Compact for Safe and Orderly Migration, which was approved yesterday by the United Nations General Assembly.

So, what will happen to these people once they ask to enter Mexico? Well, the Mexican authorities will make a decision about their entry into Mexico in a sovereign manner, based on a category in Mexican law called "visitors for humanitarian reasons." What does that mean? That they are permitted to be in our country until they are notified to return to the United States to continue their immigration proceedings. While they are in Mexico, first, they will have the protection offered by Mexican law. They will be able to request a work permit in order to cover their needs and to be able to live decently while in our country.

Once they have been notified by the U.S. that their immigration proceedings are continuing, then they will be able to return to the U.S.

As long as they are here as visitors for humanitarian reasons, they will also be able to freely enter and leave Mexico, as established by Mexican law.

Another point I would like to discuss with you is that the individuals who find themselves in this situation will of course have the right when they enter Mexico to apply for refugee status. That is decision that each of these people will have to make individually. And it must be said that they will have to fully respect Mexico's laws. Just as Mexican law protects them, they are also required to respect the laws of our country, which is welcoming them.

The Mexican government is going to ensure safe conditions while these people are in our country. And I would also like to stress the following: this is a unilateral measure by the U.S. that is met by sovereign measures on Mexico's part.  It's a meeting of two legal systems and this can bring attention to the situation of migrants who are facing difficult conditions in their countries in order to ensure their protection.

This in no way means that we are dealing with a safe third country agreement, which is an issue that has been mentioned in recent weeks.  The Foreign Ministry would like to state clearly that this is not the case. There are very significant differences between a safe third country arrangement and what we are announcing at this time. These are unilateral decisions and measures based on Mexican legislation to address a situation imposed on us by application of the U.S. law.

We mentioned that the migrants would be returned and then would go back to the U.S. when the immigration judge gives them a date for their hearing.  Logically, this has do be done in an orderly way, and with communication, precisely because we are interested in maintaining security and guaranteeing that the migrants' human rights are respected. Therefore, both entrances and exits will have to be well communicated between the two countries' authorities in order to ensure the individuals' wellbeing.

I repeat, for Mexico, this is a sovereign exercise based on its legislation and I would like to stress that it is based on our immigration policy that, as I mentioned, we shared with everyone. It was announced yesterday in the Interior Ministry and it is characterized by two main pillars: one is respect for human rights, which is also a paradigm of the immigration law. And we have stopped criminalizing migrants for being migrants or for having an irregular status, and we are going to comply with this because we are required to by article one of our Constitution.  So that was the first announcement that we wanted to make, about this measure that the U.S. government notified us about.

The second announcement has to do with a case we've been talking about for some time in the Mexican government, and that's the Avena case. You'll remember that the International Court of Justice ruled on a case that Mexico presented against the United States to ensure the procedural rights--mainly the right to consular assistance from Mexican officials in the U.S.-- of 51 Mexicans who at that time were facing criminal charges and had received the death penalty.

The ICJ ruled on the case in 2004, asking the U.S. government to review each of the cases of the 51 Mexicans and, if there was a legal basis for it, to thoroughly review and reconsider the reasons, guilty verdicts and sentences of the Mexicans. Over the years, Mexico has worked with the U.S. government to implement legislation in the United States that would comply with the Avena ruling. We acknowledge and appreciate these efforts by the U.S., but they are still insufficient.  Since the Avena case ruling, up until today, 6 Mexicans have been executed without respect for their procedural rights and without complying with the ICJ ruling, leading to a new violation of their individual rights and of international law, because they had the protection of both the ICJ and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

You'll recall that we were all together on November 14th because Roberto Ramos Moreno was executed in the state of Texas despite all the efforts taken with the appropriate U.S. and Texas authorities to avoid the execution. So today the United Nations General Assembly is going to consider the Avena case. Mexico has put the issue on the multilateral agenda again in order to strengthen the international legal regime, to strengthen the authority of the International Court of Justice and to urgently and specifically ask for compliance with the Avena decision, in accordance with the ruling handed down by the International Court of Justice.

This afternoon, this issue will be taken up in the United Nations and we will have a press release about it in the afternoon but I wanted to share this with you.

So these are the two issues that we have with the United States, and we wanted to explain our position here about, first, the immigration issues that we just discussed, and second, the ICJ ruling that involves the life of a Mexican citizen who has protection from the International Court of Justice.

So those are our positions and I am open for any questions.  We've already published a press release on this last subject on the Foreign Ministry's web page.