CASTANEDA: You can say we will give you a lawyer to go to a hearing so that to begin with it will be very, very difficult for that system to deal with so many deportations through hearings as opposed to simple so-called voluntary repatriation. But there's another element that Mexico has, which is to tell the U.S. authorities we will take any Mexican you want to deport as long as you can prove he's Mexican, which is, by the way, exactly what the United States does with people from other countries. If I arrive at the U.S. border tomorrow and I say I'm American, the U.S. border and customs enforcement guy will say, yeah, well, you sound American, but show me proof. He's not going to let me in just because I speak good English.
INSKEEP: You're saying the busload of deportees arrives at the Mexican border, which is something that happens today, and Mexican authorities just look at these people and say, nope, can't prove they're Mexican.
CASTANEDA: Would you let a hundred of my people in who I said are American without any proof of citizenship, without any proof of birth, without anything, just because they look American and you're telling me they look Mexican? I don't know what Mexicans look like. I know Mexicans who have papers. Prove to me they're Mexican.
