Felipe Calderón criticized Arizona's immigration law for being discriminatory. How tough are Mexican immigration laws?

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April 29 2010 7:18 PM

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Mexico's president criticized the new Arizona immigration law for being discriminatory. How tough are Mexican immigration laws?

Rally against the new Arizona immigration law. Click image to expand.
Rally against the new Arizona immigration law





There are other big differences between the immigration laws in Mexico and the United States.   For example, naturalized Mexicans—those who gain citizenship some way other than by birth—don't have as many rights as people who are naturalized in the United States. * In the United States, naturalized Americans can't run for president; in Mexico, they're also barred from many other high-level government posts. Nor can naturalized Mexicans hold dual citizenship. In general, though, Mexican laws against immigration aren't as strictly enforced as they are in the United States because fewer people are trying to go there.

Got a question about today's news?  Ask the Explainer.

Explainer thanks David FitzGerald of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, George Grayson of the College of William and Mary, Kevin Johnson of the University of California–Davis, and Michael Olivas of the University of Houston.


Correction, April 30, 2010: This article originally misspelled the last name of President Felipe Calderón. ( Return to the corrected sentence.) It also incorrectly stated that Portugal is a Spanish-speaking country. ( Return to the corrected sentence.) It also incorrectly stated that being born in Mexico doesn't automatically make you a citizen. (Return  to the corrected sentence.)

Christopher Beam is a writer living in Beijing.

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