The Mexican President's Wisdom

 
Mexican President Felipe Calderon spoke to Congress on Thursday, May 20, 2010. He had some words of wisdom for our legislators.

To begin with he criticized the Arizona immigration law. In his opinion it "ignores a reality that cannot be erased by decree." Does he mean that we should do nothing and let our country be taken over by illegals from Mexico? Does he mean that nothing can be done because illegal immigration is unstoppable? Or does he mean the he wants us to do nothing?

The Democrats that applauded him seem to agree with his statements and probably with the underlying desire for us to do nothing. After all, they hope that these illegals, after having been granted citizenship, will vote for the party of welfare that let them live here at the expense of those of us who still work and pay taxes.

Mr. Calderon said a couple of other things applauded by Democrats. He said that it would be nice if Congress reinstated the assault weapons ban so that the drug gangs in Mexico will have less access to "high powered weapons". You see, it is all our fault that the Mexican drug gangs use rocket launchers, grenades, heavy machine guns and automatic weapons against their government forces. Never mind that none of these are available for sale in the U.S. but are freely sold on the international market or plundered from Mexican army warehouses.

What is the Mexican President doing messing with our internal affairs and how come he feels he has a right to say these things?

The second part of the question is easy: he is no fool and seeing how the Administration and the Congressional majority agree with him, felt free to tell us what to do.

The first part is a bit more complicated. The U.S. in its current form has a mildly stabilizing influence on Mexico. This will surely become less true as our standard of living falls and our government takes over more of the economy and takes away our freedoms. In the meantime Mexican citizens can see that the country next door offers a better standard of living, more freedom and more choices. For those who are enterprising, brave and hard-working the solution is simple: move to the U.S.

Now imagine that we get serious about border security. It is true that even concrete walls and mine fields didn't stop everyone from crossing from East to West Germany but they stopped 99.999%. The rest of those who tried mostly died. I'm not suggesting this type of security. On the other hand slightly more border security combined with enforcing existing federal immigration laws and punishing employers could bring illegal immigration down to just a trickle.

This would cause less money to be sent to Mexico but it would also have serious political consequences for Mexico. Millions of people with enough initiative to leave would be stuck. How long would it take for the pressure cooker to explode? Apparently the Mexican President doesn't want to find out. He needs them to go away and the U.S. is a convenient outlet. This also explains why all the attempts by the Mexican government to curb illegal immigration to the U.S. always fail.

As to the ridiculous claim that lack of gun control in the U.S. allows Mexican drug cartels to arm themselves: Mr. Calderon knows that this is a false claim but it is convenient. Accusing the U.S. keeps his Democratic hosts happy and it may result in stricter gun laws here. The current situation is uncomfortable for the Mexican government: it rules a country with strict prohibitions on private gun ownership and astronomically high gun crime rates. The Northern neighbor has an exactly reversed situation (mostly). Is it possible that Mexicans coming back home from the U.S. will notice and want some freedom too?