Thread: Mexico needs to tell it all

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Posted on Sat, May 3, 2008 Zoom + | Zoom -
Mexico needs to tell it all
ILLEGAL immigration doesn’t just represent a challenge for the United States.

It also represents a challenge for Mexico, which has some major decisions to make in the coming years.

The Mexican government needs to decide what it’s going to do if millions of impoverished citizens that might usually go north suddenly opt to stay put because they’re worried about finding a job in the United States.

It also needs to decide how to create enough jobs at home so that those citizens who choose to stay can become productive members of the Mexican economy.

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But first, it needs to answer a more fundamental question: Whether it believes the phenomenon of people migrating across borders, often under hazardous conditions and without the proper documents, is inevitable or avoidable.

If this sort of thing is inevitable, then one could make the argument that the government should be helping people find the safest ways to cross the border.

But if it’s avoidable, then the government should do everything it can to prevent would-be migrants from even making the attempt.

THAT SORT of migration is largely avoidable, and the Mexican government needs to do more to stop it from happening, even if it means scaring the daylights of would-be migrants with comic books that read like horror stories.

That’s the idea behind an interesting initiative from Mexico’s top human rights agency. The National Human Rights Commission enjoys the financial support of the Mexican government but operates independent of it.

The agency has produced two comic books intended specifically for migrants who are thinking about crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

The message: Better think again.

While many migrants push north to follow their dreams, these comic books set out to give nightmares. In these stories, you read about migrants who are shot by bandits, robbed by crooked Mexican police, and left to die by smugglers in the desert heat.

That’s not a pretty picture, and that’s the whole idea: to scare people into staying put. Recently, 20,000 copies of the comic books were distributed at bus terminals throughout Mexico.

THE PROJECT has its critics. Some people are shocked by how graphic the stories are. The critics would have preferred something along the lines of the travel guide that another Mexican agency produced in 2004 to pass along to migrants on safety tips, legal advice and information about where to cross the border.

The critics say the commission should have been more practical, and that what migrants really need is practical information they can use to survive the trip and enter the United States safely.

The critics are wrong. That’s the last thing migrants need, more false encouragement. They’re far better off staying in their own country if they can’t find a way to legally migrate to this one.

And it’s about time Mexican officials began to say so.



— The San Diego Union-Tribune


http://www.thereporteronline.com/WebApp ... RO/Opinion

OR http://tiny.cc/yZUsH


Interestingly enough, I could not find this article on the San Diego Union-Tribune's online site at all, I wonder why? [/quote]

Mexico is the world's BIGGEST MENDACITY, and a mendacity tells LIES, not the truth!