QUESTION: Has The US Been Too Good To Mexico For Too Long?
Immigration has been a key issue in this presidential election. They say Rubio has flipped, then later flopped on his position concerning illegal immigrants.
Trump, Cruz and Christie are for building a wall to secure the borders.
The Democratic side, regardless of who is chosen, will go for allowing more illegal aliens in the hopes that they will be fresh Democratic voters for their machine.
Secure borders to both the North and South are essential for national security, but what of the 11 million or so illegals from various countries?
For the sake of argument, say theoretically on February 2017, the first of a two part decision is to try to build the wall in order to keep out any new illegal immigrants. Part two of the plan is to find a way to document the people who are already here and find the best way to deal with and process them.
One of the traditional sources of illegal aliens is Mexico. For many decades, the country was so economically depressed, that the United States was the proverbial Promised Land.
People could cross the border, get a job, even a low wage job, and earn much more than they had in Mexico. They could send their money home to their families, build their homes there and put money into their economy, usually around a 10 to 1 exchange rate. That is, 10 pesos to one dollar.
In 1993, NAFTA, (North America Free Trade Agreement) was signed into law. Then president Clinton said that “NAFTA meant jobs.” (He did not necessarily mean for people in the United States, but it did mean jobs for the countries where former US manufacturing jobs were transferred.)
Vicente Fox, president of Mexico at the time, said, “The real end winner of NAFTA will be Mexico because we have that human capital. We have that resource that is vital to the US economy.”
Felipe Calderon, Mexican president from 2006 to 2012, has issued a statement to Trump’s claim of a border wall at Mexico’s expense, “Mexico won’t pay a cent for Trump’s stupid wall.”
He goes on to state that immigration is down from Mexico to the US, since citizens have opportunities to work in their own country. He claims levels have declined or have been flat for the last five years, and some illegal immigrants are returning to their homeland because of the jobs that have been relocated to Mexico.
All of this is most likely true, thanks to NAFTA.
Since the mass migration in the twentieth century from Mexico to the US, illegal immigrant dollars have been sent south of the border, improving and building many of the Mexican citizen’s standard of living.
While it is not the responsibility of Mexico to secure our border, they might consider with some gratitude all the United States has done for them by way of employing their citizens, and ensuring the good health of many as well.
Hospitals in the United States deliver their babies, heal their sick and injured. Some pay their way and some cannot. Many take advantage of social welfare programs such as WIC and Food Stamps.
In 1985, when Mexico City had a horrendous earthquake and subsequent mudslide, causing great loss of life and physical damage, the United States sent a large sum of financial aid to combat the devastation.
The above references are just a two examples of the amiable relationship of the United States and Mexico.
It might be nice to remember how Mexico has come to have opportunities for its people. The Mexican government has never done one third as much for her people as the United States has done.
The powers that be in Mexico are generally very corrupt and do not help their own people anywhere near as much as the United States has done for theirs and our own.
The only favorable thing one can say of the Mexican bureaucracy is they are very honest in their deceit and corruption, as opposed to our government which claims to be pure, fair and democratic to its people, yet scandals of corruption erupt all the time.
It is true that we are a nation of immigrants and we should find a solution for those who are already here and would like to be legal citizens, but in closing, it would seem that an old saying would be applicable in this situation and in reference to the comment by the former Mexican president.
“If you can’t say something nice, keep your thoughts to yourself.”