Bordering states not capitalizing on resources By AARON CLAVERIE, Staff Writer
Saturday, May 29, 2004 11:01 PM PDT
CALEXICO — The states of California and Baja California are not capitalizing on a wealth of resources, according to Speaker of the California Assembly Fabian Nuñez, D-Los Angeles.
Nuñez, who visited with Baja California legislators in Mexicali on Friday, said the two states need to band together as brothers and put memories of Pete Wilson and anti-immigration propositions in the past for the collective economic good.
Those Wilson years, marked by often contentious relations with Mexico and Mexican immigrants, have set the states back, but not irreparably, Nuñez said.
Baja California Gov. Eugenio Elorduy recently visited with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in Sacramento and Elorduy asked Nuñez to remind the governor that he said he would soon visit Mexico. Nuñez said he would relay the message.
While Democrats have accused Schwarzenegger of paying lip service to Mexicans for the sake of the Hispanic vote, Nuñez said he sees more to the recent political maneuvers than vote pandering. He said there is a tremendous economic benefit for both sides and dollar signs at stake for both states.
To not put those contentious years in the past and start working on the future would be a missed economic opportunity, a chance to lure businesses to the Baja California/California border region, he said.
Assemblyman Juan Vargas, D-Chula Vista, who accompanied Nuñez on the trip, said it's up to the states to take control of the issue since the federal government has failed to act.
Delivering a gut shot to Rep. Bob Filner, D-Chula Vista, a bitter and longtime Vargas foe, he said, "There has been an incredible lack of federal focus. The federal government has failed the border areas. It's time to pick up the slack."
Vargas said the negative residue of the Wilson past should stay in the past.
"Everybody is working to get beyond that. These meetings were a great opportunity to get way beyond that and I think we will," he said. "If we don't work together it hurts us all."
While the meeting in Mexicali was partly ceremonial, there were some discussions that cut into some meaty issues, such as cross-border pollution.
Vargas said the legislators expressed a desire to solve problems that affect the borderlands.
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