Thread: Mexico's contradictions playing U.S. for fools

Mexico's contradictions playing U.S. for fools
Conor Friedersdorf, Staff Writer



Since the 1910 Mexican Revolution, our neighbor to the south has chosen exactly one leader in a fair election, current President Vicente Fox.
He presides over a nation where disparities of wealth between the working poor and the politically connected corrupt are as disheartening as the 40 percent of citizens living below the poverty line a figure that excludes those millions of poor Mexicans who immigrated to the United States seeking a better life.

The U.S. dollars earned by expatriate Mexicans and sent home as remittances keep hungry families from starving and a dysfunctional country from collapse. It is thus no surprise that President Fox fears a crackdown on illegal immigration. If the United States succeeds in keeping out illegal immigrants, Mexico won't benefit from a portion of their toil.

It is surprising, however,

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that Mexican government and media elites demonstrate their nation's dependence on illegal immigrant-sent remittances not with appeals to good will, but with righteous indignation.

"Mexico is not going to bear, it is not going to permit, and it will not allow a stupid thing like this wall," Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez warned.

"The defense of the life, the physical integrity and the human rights of our compatriots on U.S. soil cannot be delayed any longer," an influential Mexican newspaper editorialized this week, demanding that the United States create a system for the "orderly immigration" of all those seeking to come here.

In short, the Mexican government has taken the position that the United States must cease efforts to stop illegal immigration and admit within our borders anyone and everyone.

On merits, that stance isn't credible because the United States must place some limits on immigration if it hopes to assimilate those who come here, maintain sufficient infrastructure for its population and protect government services from being overwhelmed by a sudden influx of poor newcomers.

Still, I can't blame Mexican elites for voicing their preferences. They might well be better off if we opened our border completely.

What I cannot abide is Mexico's official pose open borders are a basic human right that only hardhearted, racist Americans would deny notwithstanding their own official policy of ruthlessly patrolling their southern border while maintaining an array of restrictions, and a dearth of free government benefits, for those foreigners who enter Mexico from the north or the south.

The contradiction between word and deed

signifies a disingenuousness insult because it means they're playing us for fools.

The tactic is counterproductive, too.

The more strident Mexican attacks become, the less compassion Americans will have for the immigrants streaming across our border. That's unfortunate. Those immigrants don't control their government officials (hence Mexico's poverty).

Moreover, responding in kind to official Mexican contempt while emotionally satisfying and perhaps justified ignores the reality that a strong, functional Mexico is very much in the best interest of the United States. It may well be that draconian enforcement policies and billions of dollars spent each year on border security will curtail illegal immigration.

Yet so will a more prosperous Mexico where wage disparities no longer force anyone with any ambition to flee their homeland for the U.S. economy.

I've heard pundits suggest a Marshall Plan for Mexico. I've read reports about how richer European Union nations sparked economic mini-miracles in Ireland and Spain through subsidies, and how the United States might do the same in a common market for the Americas.

If I knew which of these proposals, or what undiscovered approach, would raise living standards and economic prospects south of the border, I'd be working beside Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank rather than writing this column.

I'm rather confident, however, that Mexico's government can enact changes that will bring about prosperity in that nation with far more ease and rapidity than changes suggested by or imposed from the outside.

A precondition of such progress would seem to be a greater focus among Mexican elites on the fixable flaws of their own nation and less time wasted on disingenuous carping about America's flawed border policies.

Conor Friedersdorf manages The Sun's blog on immigration issues. The blog, designed to provide a forum for opinions and information on immigration, is at www.beyondbordersblog.com.

http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_3379086

I think I stumbled across his blog a few weeks ago- He is a tad to gentlemanly for me- like he thinks the third world reads Judith martin's Latest "MIss Manners book and that humans are rational .
but one paragraph stands out :The more strident Mexican attacks become, the less compassion Americans will have for the immigrants streaming across our border. That's unfortunate. Those immigrants don't control their government officials (hence Mexico's poverty).