Thread: Correcting assumptions about Mexico

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July 02, 2006

Correcting assumptions about Mexico

By BRYCE ASHBY and MICHAEL LaROSA
Special to The News-Journal

As President Bush suggests, we need comprehensive immigration reform. Instead we're getting indefinite delays, passionate rhetoric, endless statistics and oversimplification of complex issues. In other words, politics as usual.

Legislators assume that undocumented workers are "illegal aliens" and that any attempt to negotiate new policies or agreements constitutes "amnesty." There are reasons why such assumptions are not only wrong and in some cases dangerous. Here are five corrected assumptions, mostly about Mexico, and a little historical perspective:

· Undocumented immigrants are not a threat to U.S. society. During times of heightened stress, the national mood turns against immigrants, both documented and undocumented. This was the case following World War I when restrictive immigration legislation was passed to keep out Germans, Italians and Bulgarians. After the Great Depression, tens of thousands of Mexicans and persons of Mexican descent (many were legal residents, some were U.S. citizens) were summarily deported, and the story of the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II is well known.

Now, in the aftermath of 9/11, the United States is once again debating what it means to be a free, tolerant country with open borders and rational, realistic immigration policies. What we should be debating are real threats to America, such as are our deepening dependence on foreign oil, our failure to provide health insurance for all Americans, deep and irresponsible tax cuts that have increased the gap between rich and poor, and the growing epidemic called type II diabetes.

· Remittance payments do not represent a drain on our economy. People working in the United States return to Mexico about $20 billion per year in remittance payments. This money helps support the Mexican economy, and a strong Mexican economy is vital to the health of the U.S. economy. Money in Mexico is used to buy goods manufactured in the United States. Fifty-five percent of all Mexican imports (which total $224 billion per year) originate in the United States.

Additionally, wealthy and middle-class Mexicans buy real estate in the United States and spend $8 billion on tourism annually in our country. Mexican tourism dollars represent 8 percent of all U.S. tourist receipts. So, $20 billion flowing to Mexico does not "disappear" from the market. The free market logic and design of NAFTA means the money eventually flows back.

· Mexicans are working to improve their own economy. The Mexicans have done exactly what we have instructed them to do, via what is commonly referred to as "The Washington Consensus." During the past 20 years, Mexicans have restructured their taxation and finance laws, adopted U.S.-style banking and investment codes, and -- most significantly -- "privatized" major industries such as airlines, utilities, telecommunications and mines once owned and operated by the government.

Privatization has made many Mexicans and outside investors wealthy, but the money has not necessarily trickled down to the poor. Forty percent of Mexico's population of about 100 million is classified as poor. Yet Carlos Slim, a Mexican, is worth $24 billion, making him the wealthiest person in Latin America and the third wealthiest person in the world. Privatization in Mexico has meant more unemployment, as private companies operate more efficiently, with fewer employees. Mexicans, unable to find a job paying the Mexican minimum wage, equivalent to $5 per day, are naturally attracted to the lettuce fields of California where they can earn $5 an hour.

· Terrorists do not come from Mexico. Not a single "terrorist" since 9-11 has been apprehended along the 2,000-mile border between the United States and Mexico. In fact, it is through our more porous Canadian border that suspected terrorists have attempted to enter the United States.

· Passing an English-only bill is not going to help. The political theater of the U.S. Senate's recent "English Only Amendment," which passed by a vote of 62-35, is out of step with the core values of our country. The United States is a country of immigrants, where foreign languages, cultures and traditions must be allowed to flourish and thrive. The English-only amendment disingenuously assumes that immigrants do not integrate into America's cultural fabric, when, in fact, new immigrants are among the most patriotic and civically active Americans. The Senate legislation is little more than divisive, nativist propaganda.

LaRosa is associate professor of history at Rhodes College in Memphis and an authority on Mexico and contemporary Latin America. Ashby, now enrolled in law school, worked on immigration issues at Latino-Memphis, Inc. while an undergraduate at Rhodes.

Not all assumptions need to be corrected.

This is a pack of distortion and half truths. What Mexico needs most right now is not amnesty for illegals or guest workers in the United States. What Mexico needs is to have more local economic self reliance especially in food. Mexico also neeeds investment from Mexican Americans and the Mexican residents of the United States.

new immigrants are among the most patriotic and civically active Americans.

I don't doubt this among immigrants at all.....however, illegal aliens are a whole different story, which is what the debate is about. GET IT!

Terrorists do not come from Mexico. Not a single "terrorist" since 9-11 has been apprehended along the 2,000-mile border between the United States and Mexico.

Key word here is apprehended. If they were, they were probably given a court date and released.