Posted by
John Caile on Friday, May 21, 2010 11:05:40 AM
When Mexican President Felipe Calderon had the audacity to criticize Arizona's anti-illegal alien law, most reasonable Americans were rightly incensed. Filled with left-wing references to "racial profiling" and other language right out of the "progressive" playbook, Calderon's speech sounded as though it had been written by one of Obama's staffers.
So when the entire Democrat caucus came to their feet to applaud Calderon's insulting remarks, I wasn't surprised, but I was most certainly angry. It was bad enough having to listen to this snotty little man from a Third World hell hole bash the
one country that has done more for human freedom than any other nation
on earth. But how dare elected representatives of the American people cheer him on.
Laughably, Calderon then went on CNN and proceeded to admit to Wolf Blitzer that, in Mexico, they in fact do every one of the things (and more) that he had falsely criticized the United States for doing - when Mexico finds people in their country illegally, for example, they don't give them welfare, they actually deport them!
With the way the Democrat controlled media has been spinning the immigration debate, one would think that the illegal alien "issue" is entirely the fault of the United States. But Mexico's problems are far deeper than a few "undocumented workers" looking to clean tables for minimum wage.
Mexico is in shambles. With a corrupt government controlling huge sectors of the economy (their state-owned oil industry being the largest) Mexico embodies all of the worst aspects of a modern socialist state. As a result, the Mexican unemployed are forced to look for employment elsewhere. Many Mexican families will even have a formal sit-down meeting to decide which of them will make the journey to "El Norte" to become the primary provider (much of what Mexican illegals earn goes to their families back home).
Few Americans realize the scope of this income transfer - the billions of dollars that illegals working in the U.S. send back to Mexico makes up
a significant portion of Mexico's gross domestic product. So crossing the boarder is seen by many as the solution to their troubles. But it can also bring them into contact with the vicious and sadistic "coyotes" - the thugs who, for a fee, will offer to bring them across the border, often packed inside of steaming hot windowless steel trucks.
Once inside the U.S. their troubles are far from over. Some will be held hostage, with the coyotes demanding yet further payment from the "customer's" friends and family before finally releasing them. Others, including women and children, have been left locked inside trucks abandoned in the desert, to die horrible deaths from heat and dehydration.
Then there are the violent drug cartels who rule over vast areas of the Mexican countryside. The brutal killings along the Mexican/American border have reached epidemic proportions. Kidnappings of officials are almost routine. And much of the violence has spilled over into towns on the American side of the boarder. And with so many Mexican law enforcement officials on the payroll of the drug lords, the chances for any serious change in that situation are slim.
American policies on immigration are deeply flawed. We never should have misinterpreted the 14th Amendment to mean that any child who simply happened to have been born on American soil is automatically a citizen.
We should never have allowed any non-citizen access to the cornucopia of welfare and other social services meant for legitimate Americans. The drain on our resources has been staggering.
Both our Northern and our Southern boarder should have long ago been fortified, not just to stem the tide of illegals from Mexico and other South American countries, but to prevent terrorists from entering the country disguised as "undocumented workers."
But the real responsibility for the immigration problem rests with Mexico itself. Until the Mexican government gets control of their economy, their drug problem, and their corruption, the "boarder war" will continue.