(CNSNews.com) - Mexico will soon bestow its highest honor upon liberal Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) for his work in “defending the rights of immigrants.”
The Mexican government announced last Friday that it intends to present Kennedy with the Order of the Aztec Eagle.
Ricardo Alday, a spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C., told Cybercast News Service that the award, the highest that Mexico gives to foreigners, will be presented “at a time that is convenient to the senator.”
The presentation will laud Kennedy for his work on immigration, and “for (promoting) full political participation and increased access to health and education services for the Mexican-American community."
Groups on both sides of the immigration issue are – not surprisingly – split over the award.
Hector M. Flores, immediate past national president of LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens, told Cybercast News Service that Kennedy – indeed, the entire Kennedy family – deserves the honor, if not “canonization.”
“I think it is long in coming,” Flores said. “I think if there’s been, not just one individual, but a part of a family that has always gone out of their way to make sure that the downtrodden, the powerless, the defenseless are defended, it’s been Ted Kennedy and the Kennedy family.”
“In our mindset as Mexican Americans and Latinos, they are pretty high – next to sainthood – as far as we’re concerned, at least in many segments of our community,” Flores said.
“They just about walk on water. Not to sound trivial, but this is kind of like being on the way to canonization for the great work he’s done over many, many years, not only for Latinos, but for people in general in our country,” he added.
Flores said Kennedy is especially deserving of honor for the work he has done in the last two years on immigration reform.
“He is a foremost adversary for those who would not want to pay attention to the downtrodden in our country,” Flores said.
But Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, told Cybercast News Service that he is “just not comfortable” with Kennedy receiving the prize.
“In principle, getting an award from a foreign government isn’t necessarily a problem,” Krikorian said. “For instance, last year Mexico gave this award to Bill Gates because of his philanthropic work in Mexico – donating computers and helping to eliminate disease, that kind of stuff.”
This award went to an American government official for “helping implement policies that the Mexican government wants implemented,” Krikorian said.
“In other words, it’s a reward – not so much for doing Mexico’s bidding, but for doing things that the Mexican government would like the American government to do. That is problematic,” he said.
“Even if you argue that the legalization of immigrants is necessary and we need more immigration, to be legitimate those arguments need to be made within the context of America’s national interest – not serving the interests of a foreign government, which is what accepting this award sure makes it look like,” said Krikorian.
Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said he is not as upset with Mexico awarding the prize as with Kennedy accepting it.
‘The question is whether Senator Kennedy has been looking out for the interests of American citizens,” Mehlman told Cybercast News Service. “From our point of view, the answer is no, not very well. He seems to forget that these policies are there, first and foremost, to protect U.S. citizens.”
In 2005 and again last year, Kennedy co-sponsored, along with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), an immigration bill that would have provided for guest worker visas, and allowed undocumented aliens to stay in the United States, if they paid a $1,500 fine.
“It was a bill that would have guaranteed benefits for people who broke the law, both illegal aliens and their direct employers,” Mehlman said. “The American people were kind of an afterthought.”
Kennedy, by the way, returned to the Senate in June after brain surgery to remove a tumor.