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N1: The Institutional Revolutionary Party lost the Presidency for the first time in Mexico's history in 2000. This year the party has moved North in search of new voters. Cesar Alguirre is President of the PRI's northeast branch, based in New York City.
AX1 (Alguirre): Congressmen in Mexico are finally listening to Mexicans abroad. It is likely that the Presidential elections in 2006 will be determined by votes broad.
N2: Enrique Ochoa is working to make Mexicans living in New York an important part of the next election. Last month he compiled a list of important issues with other PRI activists in Dallas, Chicago, and Los Angeles. This week he is in Mexico City, for the PRI's convention. He believes by that by appealing to Mexicans who live abroad, especially with regard to immigration policy, the PRI can take back the presidency from Vicente Fox and his National Action Party
AX2 (Ochoa): The Fox administration has been unsuccessful in coming to an agreement with the US government regarding migration. But it is clear both countries, both peoples, both governments have a problem with migration and more importantly migration that seems to be through illegal mechanisms, and it is up to both governments to come to an agreement.
N3: Ochoa says that if Mexicans can vote in the next election, they will be just like other immigrant groups in the US. Rodolfo de la Garza, a professor of politics at Columbia University, disagrees. He says that giving Mexicans living in the US the right to vote would be very different from the voting rights other immigrant groups enjoy
AX3 (Garza): This is not like a small number of Colombians voting in New York and it's kind of quaint. This could be massive. A large campaign, if the PRI does it, the other parties are going to do it.
N4: The number of Mexicans living in the United States could make up fifteen percent of the country's electorate. Garza worries that shifting their attention back to Mexico would divide their loyalties even more than they already are.
AX (Garza): This campaign will be about Mexican rather than being American and part of the deal for immigrants is that you come and you become an American. Well this is a way of visciating that deal.
N5: The bill to allow Mexicans living abroad to vote in elections back home is now before the Senate. By the end of the senate session this month, the PRI will know how Mexicans in the US will factor into the next election.
Tom Grove Columbia Radio News