Thread: Mexico and the United States should shake hands, not fists

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/13904934.htm

Posted on Sun, Feb. 19, 2006


Mexico and the United States should shake hands, not fists

By JUAN HERNANDEZ
Special to the Star-Telegram

In America, everyone comes from somewhere else. And just as America's famed pioneers of old made sacrifices to build a better life, so today's Mexican immigrants are America's "New Pioneers," helping to build a better America through hard work and honorable sacrifice.

Yet precisely when the congresses of two friendly, neighboring nations should be reaching out to each another in a spirit of cooperation to discuss a shared economic destiny, they are instead facing off in a border showdown. Talk of walls, armed guards, high-tech surveillance and immigration "dragnets" are not the signs of "good neighbor" policies in the making, especially when a win-win immigration solution is so easily within our grasp.

In the early years of the past century, Mexicans crossed the U.S. border openly. America even encouraged Mexican immigration during wartime periods, when there was a shortage of manpower to fill U.S. job demands.

A similar situation exists today, only it is not a call-up of American men to war that has created the job market requiring Mexican laborers. It is a growing American economy coupled with social, economic and demographic changes.

The immediate departure of Mexican immigrants would devastate the American economy. Food would rot unpicked in the fields. Car assembly-line production would grind to a halt. In some states, nearly one quarter of our children's teachers would vanish.

Each year, immigrants (legal and illegal) spend nearly $84 billion in this nation on food, rent, utilities, transportation and entertainment -- and in taxes for which they cannot collect benefits. They contribute billions to Social Security, which they are unlikely ever to draw upon, subsidizing the rest of us. These billons of dollars in spending power are vital to the U.S. Treasury and the nation's economy.

President Bush has stated that "as a Texan, I have known many immigrant families, mainly from Mexico, and I've seen what they add to our country. They bring to America the values of faith in God, love of family, hard work, and self-reliance; the values that made us a great nation."

Then came 9-11, and Americans understandably were outraged by the actions of a now-infamous handful of terrorists who attacked our country. Slowly, Washington's messages on immigrants changed. America does have enemies, and the nation has been under attack regularly for the last 25 years:

Terrorists stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held American employees hostage in 1979. The enemy was not Mexico.

The U.S. embassies in Beirut and Lebanon were attacked in 1983 -- but not by Mexico.

A Pan-American flight to New York was blown out of the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. Mexico had nothing to do with it.

The first attack on the New York World Trade Center occurred in 1988 -- but not at the hands of a Mexican.

An American warship, the USS Cole, was attacked in Aden, Yemen, in 2000 -- but not by Mexico.

On Sept. 11, 2001, the Pentagon and the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center suffered catastrophic destruction and enormous loss of life when airliners were crashed into them -- but not at the hands of Mexicans.

Reasonable and concerned people on both sides of the immigration issue agree that a circular migration, with migrants coming to the United States to work for a time and then returning to their families in Mexico, would benefit U.S. businesses and economy.

To that end, many Republicans and Democrats (and Bush) have proposed granting temporary legal status and work permits to millions of migrants who live in the United States without legal documentation. Under many of the proposed legislative bills, undocumented workers -- mainly from Mexico -- could obtain three-year renewable work visas with full employee benefits and legal protections.

If these millions were documented, not only could the United States gain better control of its borders, but migrants would be free to return home and contribute to Mexico's development.

Canadians, Americans and Mexicans live on the same continent. We must find ways to cooperate and work together as friends, partners and neighbors, to create a North American community!

I do not promote a no-border policy, but I do recognize that the economic world is changing rapidly, and more and more nations are jostling to compete in international trade. According to experts, in 25 years or less, Canada, the United States and Mexico will find it imperative to share their unique, vital assets and work together as a bloc to compete with the European Union, China and others.

All Americans came from somewhere else, and 41 million of us American Latinos have family south of the border. It is time we worked more closely with Mexico -- our second most important trading partner, our neighbor and our kin. The U.S. Congress can start today by implementing an immigration reform that truly makes sense.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Juan Hernandez, a Fort Worth native, is a former Cabinet member for Mexican President Vicente Fox and founder of the Center for U.S.-Mexico Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Juan Hernandez is the author of "The New American Pioneers: Why are we afraid of Mexican immigrants?" (Pneuma, March 2006).

Mr. Hernandez, Everything in this life is replaceable including trading partners. As far as you referring to Mexico as a friend, You can't lie to all the people all the time. Mexico is nothing but a corrupt incompetent democracy. They need to learn the big mistake they have created for themselves by allowing their military in terroristic schemes against the USA.

In America, everyone comes from somewhere else

I beg to differ with this. I didn't come from somewhere else, my mother and father didn't come from somewhere else, none of my grandparents or step grandparents came from somewhere else, one of my great grandparents came from Canada but the others were born in the USA. In fact, one of those great grandparents was an Iroquois and who knows how many generations she had who were born here. So how does that equate to "everyone" comes from somewhere else?