Thread: Mexico: A failed state?

Mexico: A failed state?
Tancredo warns asylum will worsen country's drug cartel troubles, burden U.S.

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Posted: July 15, 2008
10:36 pm Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

Mexican police are flocking to the U.S.-Mexico border and requesting political asylum as the country's war on drug cartels heats up, but critics say policies granting refuge could be used against the U.S.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., said in a commentary today if Mexican citizens threatened by gangs claim the same right to asylum, it could worsen drug cartel troubles in Mexico and place an undue burden on the states.

"If our laws are stretched to accept thousands of refugees from drug cartel violence, it will only exacerbate Mexico's problems," he said.

Current immigration law doesn't routinely offer special accommodations for law enforcement fleeing from organized crime because political asylum is meant to apply to persons facing government persecution.

Tancredo said while Americans may sympathize with cartel-targeted Mexican prosecutors or police chiefs who seek refuge, the U.S. must consider its options before accepting numerous asylum requests.

"What will happen if we do not accept these asylum applications as a humanitarian gesture?" he asked. "What will happen if we do?"

The number of such requests has doubled as people seeking refuge simply walk to ports of entry along the southern border and ask authorities to protect them.

"We must respect them for following our laws and doing it the right way," Tancredo said. "But we must also ask some hard questions before throwing open our gates. Humanitarian concerns must be balanced against other considerations – because the fate of Mexico hangs in that balance."

With honest officers escaping to the U.S., Tancredo expressed concern that corrupt officials would be left to conspire with criminals, control the courts and worsen conditions for the country. Likewise, he said law-abiding citizens who seek refuge will leave a vacuum of corruption waiting to be filled by truckers, farmers and bankers who are willing to collaborate with drug cartels.


"The unpleasant truth is that this new refugee problem is the sign of a deep crisis not in the Mexican economy but in the Mexican political system itself," Tancredo said. "Mexico exhibits mounting signs of a 'failed state,' a political system that cannot satisfy the most basic conditions of civic order such as safety in one's streets, home, school and workplace."

Tancredo emphasized a distinction between illegal immigrants who come to the states and refugees who are chased from their homes. He said they are middle-class citizens with good jobs who wish to remain in Mexico, but who come to the U.S. because they are deeply concerned about the dangerous conditions they leave behind.

"If police chiefs and judges cannot be protected from the cartels, then how can ordinary citizens feel safe?" he asked. "If we open the gates to everyone who has a 'credible fear' of the cartels, the Border Patrol will no longer have to worry only about people jumping the fence. Thousands will be waiting in line at one of over 300 ports of entry."

Tancredo said the only way for Mexico to win the battle against drug cartels is for it to rebuild its police and criminal justice systems and protect uncorrupted authorities and citizens from gangs.

"To his credit, President Calderon has begun to tackle this problem," he said.

While he said military tactics are needed to break the hold cartels have on the country, such operations are no match for an effective criminal justice system. Citizens must have reason to believe law enforcement can be trusted, and police must be able to expect the same from their government, he said.

Offering asylum to law-abiding Mexican authorities is not the answer because the country will be stripped of its most respected civil servants, and Mexico will become a "militarized society," the senator said; however, Tancredo claims all is not lost.

"Mexico is not yet a failed state," he said. "But if humanitarian sentiment and special interest pleadings in the U.S. block sound immigration policy – as happens all too often in American law and politics – we will hasten that tragic development."


http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=69742

Mexico is a Failed State ... give it a few months and the Good Ole "Late Great USA" will be one as well

We are a Failed State in the Making

If we had a government that represented and worked in the interests of Americans, our troops would be in Mexico occupying and nation building, not to mention securing our border, and not in Iraq digging up phantom dubyamd's on behalf of the neocons and globalist brethren.

Originally Posted by BrotherJohn

If we had a government that represented and worked in the interests of Americans, our troops would be in Mexico occupying and nation building, not to mention securing our border, and not in Iraq digging up phantom dubyamd's on behalf of the neocons and globalist brethren.

Amen to that, brother! Very well said. Mexico is a joke of a country waiting to implode and the leaders of the US had better wake up.

Mexico is in more of a crisis than we are, but we are not too far behind, and accepting every Mexican national into our nation, as Tancredo said, leaving that vaccum behind them, will only hasten our own demise.