Mexico exodus: Foreign policy disaster for the U.S.

Memin Penguin, a character created by a Mexican artist, perceived as racist-based in the U.S., is still popular in Mexico.You can’t cover politics without noticing a steady stream of news releases and policy statements on what wonks and pundits call immigration. Left leaners paint the millions entering the U.S. with one brush—humble farm workers hoping to improve their lot. Right leaners see the influx as an invasion made up of people no one can document.

Commerce chambers and advocates for the hotel, ski resort and construction sectors among others see foreign citizens who come here to work (legally or illegally) as taking jobs Americans won’t take. Remember the hoopla in 2005 when Mexico president Vicente Fox said, “[I]legals do the work that ‘not even black people want to do,’ implying that African Americans make up the lowest rungs of society. “ [The San Francisco Chronicle]

Fox was criticizing citizens of Arizona who were concerned about the deluge of foreign citizens in their state. The Chronicle reminded us Mexico unveiled postage stamps about a month later “featuring none other than a black character like something out of a minstrel show.”

Fox’s remarks and the stamps controversy happened during the presidency of George W. Bush.

After President Barack Obama took office, Mexico president Felipe Calderon made US history. He addressed the US Congress in 2010. In a strident tone, Calderon said his country was doing the “best we can do to reduce migration.” He then took on the law passed in Arizona, a state still desperate to control costs associated with an influx of foreign citizens. “I strongly disagree with the recently adopted law in Arizona,” said Calderon. “It is a law that not only ignores a reality that cannot be erased by decree, but also introduces a terrible idea using racial profiling as a basis for law enforcement.”

Arizona, frustrated by more than a decade of federal negligence, had come up with a law in an effort to identify those in the state illegally.

Democrats stood and applauded wildly, giving Calderon an extended ovation. Then Speaker of the US House Nancy Pelosi beamed.

The US Justice Dept. aligned its position with Mexico, astounding many Americans by filing a lawsuit that effectively placed the Justice Dept. in the position of advocating for citizens of a foreign country. The federal government’s refusal to enforce laws related to foreign citizens—in ‘governmentese’ these travelers are called ‘aliens’—is   known to all. That refusal has persisted under administrations past and present. That refusal led to Arizona’s rather desperate measure.

At no point did Calderon mention his own country’s foreign citizen problem. The CIA World Fact Book notes, “Mexico must deal with thousands of impoverished Guatemalans and other Central Americans who cross the porous border looking for work in Mexico and the United States.”

Nor did Calderon address ingrained racism in his own country.

In the 2005 article The Chronicle said, “It turns out that racism in Mexico, both against blacks and dark-skinned indigenous Indians, has a long history. Mexico's colonial past has left its mark on modern-day society. Prejudice toward ‘pureblood’ Indians from those who are ‘mixed-blood’ (Spanish and Indian) is rife.”

I read comments on a message board—I can’t remember the name of the forum—that claimed Mexico never practiced slavery. The writer asserted Mexico was a haven for slaves fleeing the U.S.—freedom south of the border.

Of course that is a blatant lie, but it is commonly believed in Mexico.

The U.S. currently has a border that permits anyone with a good plan to slip across. We have no idea who is coming across, and based on my own research, the most documented are actually the agricultural workers. Regulations for that sector are numerous, as a column at Covering Florida Online recently pointed out.

Lump in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) passed during the Clinton administration and all you come up with are questions. The last time the Congressional Budget Office addressed that act was in 2003. That appears to be the most recent assessment on the CBO website. The results were inconclusive.

What we are experiencing and have been since the 1990s is a complete failure of US foreign policy. Our border insecurity on land is but a small aspect of an overall insecurity that includes seaports and airports.

I have often asked a key question. Who benefits?

Aside from entitlements the children of any foreign citizen can get—no politico in the U.S. mentions these entitlements as a cost-cutting target—the drug cartels, human traffickers and smugglers benefit. Low wages benefit corporations in some sectors that fill jobs with foreign workers Americans would most definitely take. Potential votes cast legally or illegally benefit whichever political party manages to capture them with targeted messaging.

Mexico benefits from billions in remittances sent home by workers, an income the country is determined to maintain.

The divisiveness promoted by open border advocates presents potential for future civil unrest. Our current administration like those of presidents past handles the border with kid gloves because advocacy groups lump all speakers of different Spanish dialects into one homogenized group—Hispanic. That label is inappropriate. The majority of foreign citizens coming across the border at present comes from Mexico and they comprise different nationalities. Furthermore, Mexico is passing her immigration problem onto the U.S.

Meanwhile in low income neighborhoods, resources for healthcare, education and housing are contracting because of domestic policy and skyrocketing food and energy prices. No one ever talks about the impact of crime on low income black neighborhoods in particular.

Instead, black and white leaders liken the current Mexico exodus to the civil rights struggle in the U.S.

I've said it before and I will say it again. A large number of black people first came to the U.S. centuries ago in chains. There is a distinct difference between civil rights struggles for black people in the U.S. and the foreign citizens coming across our borders today. To paint both as the same is to insult black people whose ancestors were slaves.

Not a pundit or politician in the land sees the current situation as a foreign policy disaster although that's exactly what it is. 

As the Mexico exodus continues, whose palms are being greased?

In 2010 (center front) DHS chief Janet Napolitano and US Dept. of Justice head Eric Holder join other Democrats in extended applause for Mexico president Felipe Calderon. Calderon was speaking to Congress, criticizing the state of Arizona for a law he said used “racial profiling.” In my lifetime I have never seen a foreign leader insult the US people in the manner Calderon adopted.[Screen snip from PBS clip at YouTube, 2010]Related Links

Is Mexico’s racism problem driving the US immigration problem?
An enlightening discussion at Physics Forums

Africa’s Legacy in Mexico: A Legacy of Slavery
Migrations in History at The Smithsonian

Mexico’s puzzling position on immigration
The US Report

Gringo essay aired on NPR
The US Report

Obama administration response to Arizona
The US Report

70 percent of illegal aliens in Texas receive welfare
I Hate the Media

(Commentary by Kay B. Day/April 18, 2011)

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