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Poor Mexico and those wicked Americans
Salt Lake Tribune ^ | Friday, April 30, 2010 | Gwynne Dyer

Posted on 05/01/2010 12:04:05 PM PDT by Willie Green

The president of Mexico was furious. "Criminalizing immigration, which is a social and economic phenomena, opens the door to intolerance, hate and discrimination," Felipe Calderon told a meeting of Mexican immigrant groups. The state of Arizona had gone too far.

Jose Miguel Insulza, the head of the Organization of American States, was equally angry. "We consider the bill clearly discriminatory against immigrants, and especially against immigrants from Latin America." His point seemed to be that by treating illegal Mexican immigrants as a police matter, the new Arizona law is attacking their human rights.

The new law that is causing such outrage requires Arizona police to question people about their immigration status if they suspect they are there illegally. Day laborers face arrest for soliciting work if they are in the U.S. illegally, and police departments can be sued if they fail to enforce the law. The flow of illegal migrants to the United States is important for Mexico. It provides a vital safety valve for the Mexican state, which would otherwise face the discontent of millions of Mexicans who cannot find decent jobs at home, and their remittances are a great help to the Mexican balance of payments. But the widely held Mexican belief that illegal immigrants have rights in the United States is most peculiar.

It arises from the fact that for a long time the United States has deliberately kept the border with Mexico porous, so that Advertisement large numbers of Mexican illegals can enter the United States to provide cheap stoop labor for American agribusiness. In the cities along the American side of the frontier, the border defenses are quite impressive, but out in the desert they are frequently no more than three strands of barbed wire and a dirt patrol track.

Some argue that illegal Mexican immigrants are doing jobs nobody else wants, but that is only a possible reason for letting them stay. It certainly does not give them the right to stay.

Yet the Mexican government reacts with outraged indignation whenever the U.S. government, or in this case an American state, talks about enforcing the law against illegal immigrants. It has come to think of the nod-and-a-wink arrangement that allows large numbers of illegal immigrants to cross the border each year as the natural state of things.

Arizona is calling time on that system, and actually intends to seek out and send home people who are in the state illegally. In most parts of the world, that would not be regarded as unreasonable. What is different in Arizona's case?

The implicit charge is racism. The assumption is that American citizens of Mexican origin, and legitimate Mexican visitors, will also be stopped and asked to prove that they are legally in the United States -- and that they will be chosen for questioning on the grounds that they simply look "Mexican."

President Calderon himself would never be inconvenienced by such a policy, because he does not look "Mexican." He looks like your average white American, as does a large majority of the Mexican upper class. But it is true that most poorer Mexicans, including both legal and illegal Mexican immigrants in the United States, are mestizos of mixed white and Indian ancestry.

They look "Mexican," in other words, and the concern is that they will face constant demands from the police to prove they are legally in the United States. But the solution for this is simple. Simply enforce the same rules that apply in airport security queues to ensure that nobody feels they are being "profiled" because of their ethnicity.

In the airports, they make sure that heavily bearded young men who look "Middle Eastern" face no greater risk of being selected for special examination than paraplegic grandmothers. The Arizona police should be instructed to stop 13 white, black and Asian people and check that they are legally in the state for every person they stop who looks "Mexican."

Then nobody will have anything to complain about.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Mexico
KEYWORDS: aliens; invasion; mexico; mexicosucks
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1 posted on 05/01/2010 12:04:06 PM PDT by Willie Green
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To: Willie Green

THEY ARE NOT IMMIGRANTS...THEY ARE ILLEGALS


2 posted on 05/01/2010 12:05:26 PM PDT by dalebert
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To: Willie Green

If it is soooo bad here, then why do they keep coming?


3 posted on 05/01/2010 12:09:22 PM PDT by central_va ( http://www.15thvirginia.org)
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To: Willie Green

Yeah, we citizens get to cross borders, take jobs from others, own land and abandon mortgages — almost at will. And, we get free benes, services, education, welfare, health care and who knows what else.

Mexicans are so welcome in Asia, too, I hear.


4 posted on 05/01/2010 12:11:13 PM PDT by combat_boots (The Lion of Judah cometh. Hallelujah. Gloria Patri, Filio et Spirito Sancto.)
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To: Willie Green

Hey thanks, Mr. Mexican President!

I’m going to be an immigrant too! I’ll just drive down to Baja somewhere, find a nice little nest somewhere with a hill to my back and the ocean to my face, build a house, get a job, bring my wife and kids and cousins and sisters and brothers, and we’ll work hard in our new Baja home. We’ll be doing the jobs Mexicans refuse to do. And because I come from a culture known for its hard work and thrift, we’ll add to the economy. (I’m Jewish; my wife’s ancestry is from Milan; neither culture are known for slouching.) To make it better, we are from classic Mediterranean people. My wife’s brown-olive skin is lovely, and will be more so in our new Baja home, so if you tell us to leave, you’re a racist pig! And an antisemite, although that doesn’t count for much these days.

I wonder how long that would last. Probably not as long as a similarly illegal migrant in Arizona.


5 posted on 05/01/2010 12:11:22 PM PDT by redpoll
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To: Willie Green
His point seemed to be that by treating illegal Mexican immigrants as a police matter, the new Arizona law is attacking their human rights.

They have a human right to stay the hell in Mexico.

Otherwise.. not so much.

6 posted on 05/01/2010 12:13:25 PM PDT by humblegunner (Pablo is very wily)
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To: Willie Green

“The president of Mexico was furious. “Criminalizing immigration, which is a social and economic phenomena, opens the door to intolerance, hate and discrimination,” Felipe Calderon told a meeting of Mexican immigrant groups. The state of Arizona had gone too far.”

A flat out, utter lie. Legal immigration is in no way being criminalized, nor is it a socio-econimic phenomena. It is a complete and utter disregard for our border, our laws, and our citizens.

We, as a people, need to tell him, and all those that seek to enter our country illegally, that it’s our country, we will decide who enters, who can work here, and don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.

Our government *should* be doing that, but I think we can all agree that’s not going to happen.

Az has shown the way: if the Fed won’t do it, then WE will. And there’s not a damned thing the corrupt Mexican government can do about it.


7 posted on 05/01/2010 12:14:11 PM PDT by ByDesign
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To: Willie Green
Some argue that illegal Mexican immigrants are doing jobs nobody else wants

Our prisons attest to that fact.

8 posted on 05/01/2010 12:15:43 PM PDT by bgill (how could a young man born here in Kenya, who is not even a native American, become the POTUS)
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To: Willie Green
Whoever wrote this article didn't read the law.

Nobody can be stopped because they have a certain "look". It has to be a legal violation like a traffic stop or criminal complaint - like 25 people living in the house next door.

If the suspect shows a valid U.S. driver's license, 95% of the time, that'll be the end of it.

9 posted on 05/01/2010 12:15:49 PM PDT by muleskinner ("You know the Germans always make good stuff')
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To: Willie Green

What if in the distant future Mexico experienced an economic boom, and thousands of anglo-looking gringos poured across the border into their country looking for jobs? You better believe they’d be profiling them.


10 posted on 05/01/2010 12:16:44 PM PDT by driftless2 (for long term happiness, learn how to play the accordion)
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To: Willie Green
The answer is supply and demand.

We can't win the war on drugs becuase there is always somebody that wants to get high.

The war on illegal immigration can largely be won by cutting off the demand for cheap illegal labor. We have to make it so painful on businesses that use illegal labor that it stops making it profitable. At the same time we could offer a guest worker program that doesn't include a path to citizenship.

11 posted on 05/01/2010 12:20:47 PM PDT by USNBandit (sarcasm engaged at all times)
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To: Willie Green

For decades, Mexico has used the US as a dumping ground for perverts, thugs, drug dealers—that is, those who refuse to bribe Mexican officials—and all manner of criminals and general undesirables. No WONDER Mexican authorities are mad about the Arizona law. They might actual have to deal with their own sub-human citizens!


12 posted on 05/01/2010 12:22:21 PM PDT by Oldpuppymax
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To: Willie Green

Tell Mr. Calderon that when he changes the Mexican laws that criminalise immigration we may give it a thought, Until then—Suck off.


13 posted on 05/01/2010 12:24:19 PM PDT by Venturer
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To: Willie Green

Illegals are criminals in Mexico. Why not in the US also?


14 posted on 05/01/2010 12:25:29 PM PDT by Republic of Texas (Socialism Always Fails)
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To: muleskinner
Don't make apologies for the law. The police have every right to pay attention to ethnicity ( "Mexican" is not a race ) because it's one element of reasonable suspicion.

The reason the Mexican government and the Brown Brigades of Hatred are screaming so loudly is precisely to get you to back down: it's intentional intimidation.

They are terrified that the law will be effective, and their "boots on the ground" in the United States will simply be deported.

That will be a disaster for them.

So don't be fooled: Spaniard culture is all about aggression and intimidation, and this is part of it.

15 posted on 05/01/2010 12:26:58 PM PDT by Regulator (Welcome to Zimbabwe! Now hand over your property....)
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To: Willie Green

If you get pulled over, and you have ID, then you get a ticket and thats the end of it.

If you get pulled over, and you don’t have any ID, and you can’t speak English, then that might arouse suspicion. That won’t catch everyone because its quite possible to be in the country illegally and still have proper ID. Someone who overstayed their visa would still have proper ID.

But cops pick up people every day who match every profile for an illegal border-jumper and many complain that when they call Immigration to check them out, Immigration tells them they don’t have time to deal with it, they don’t have anyone available to send over, and in the end the cops wind up cutting the guy loose. I’ve been told this by family members who are cops, and have heard it from others.


16 posted on 05/01/2010 12:27:37 PM PDT by marron
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To: Willie Green

Leftists believe in their right to take anything they want from you but you have NO RIGHTS!


17 posted on 05/01/2010 12:30:45 PM PDT by Soothesayer (The United States of America Rest in Peace November 4 2008)
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To: humblegunner

A “human right” in libspeak is whatever a leftist pig wants.


18 posted on 05/01/2010 12:32:22 PM PDT by Soothesayer (The United States of America Rest in Peace November 4 2008)
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To: All

Mexico’s Immigration Law: Let’s Try It Here at Home
Human Events ^ | 05/08/2006 | J. Michael Waller

Posted on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 12:56:10 PM by Mount Athos

Mexico has a radical idea for a rational immigration policy that most Americans would love. However, Mexican officials haven’t been sharing that idea with us as they press for our Congress to adopt the McCain-Kennedy immigration reform bill.

That’s too bad, because Mexico, which annually deports more illegal aliens than the United States does, has much to teach us about how it handles the immigration issue. Under Mexican law, it is a felony to be an illegal alien in Mexico.

At a time when the Supreme Court and many politicians seek to bring American law in line with foreign legal norms, it’s noteworthy that nobody has argued that the U.S. look at how Mexico deals with immigration and what it might teach us about how best to solve our illegal immigration problem. Mexico has a single, streamlined law that ensures that foreign visitors and immigrants are:

* in the country legally;

* have the means to sustain themselves economically;

* not destined to be burdens on society;

* of economic and social benefit to society;

* of good character and have no criminal records; and

* contributors to the general well-being of the nation.

The law also ensures that:

* immigration authorities have a record of each foreign visitor;

* foreign visitors do not violate their visa status;

* foreign visitors are banned from interfering in the country’s internal politics;

* foreign visitors who enter under false pretenses are imprisoned or deported;

* foreign visitors violating the terms of their entry are imprisoned or deported;

* those who aid in illegal immigration will be sent to prison.

Who could disagree with such a law? It makes perfect sense. The Mexican constitution strictly defines the rights of citizens — and the denial of many fundamental rights to non-citizens, illegal and illegal. Under the constitution, the Ley General de Población, or General Law on Population, spells out specifically the country’s immigration policy.

It is an interesting law — and one that should cause us all to ask, Why is our great southern neighbor pushing us to water down our own immigration laws and policies, when its own immigration restrictions are the toughest on the continent? If a felony is a crime punishable by more than one year in prison, then Mexican law makes it a felony to be an illegal alien in Mexico.

If the United States adopted such statutes, Mexico no doubt would denounce it as a manifestation of American racism and bigotry.

We looked at the immigration provisions of the Mexican constitution. [1] Now let’s look at Mexico’s main immigration law.

Mexico welcomes only foreigners who will be useful to Mexican society:

* Foreigners are admitted into Mexico “according to their possibilities of contributing to national progress.” (Article 32)

* Immigration officials must “ensure” that “immigrants will be useful elements for the country and that they have the necessary funds for their sustenance” and for their dependents. (Article 34)

* Foreigners may be barred from the country if their presence upsets “the equilibrium of the national demographics,” when foreigners are deemed detrimental to “economic or national interests,” when they do not behave like good citizens in their own country, when they have broken Mexican laws, and when “they are not found to be physically or mentally healthy.” (Article 37)

* The Secretary of Governance may “suspend or prohibit the admission of foreigners when he determines it to be in the national interest.” (Article 38)

Mexican authorities must keep track of every single person in the country:

* Federal, local and municipal police must cooperate with federal immigration authorities upon request, i.e., to assist in the arrests of illegal immigrants. (Article 73)

* A National Population Registry keeps track of “every single individual who comprises the population of the country,” and verifies each individual’s identity. (Articles 85 and 86)

* A national Catalog of Foreigners tracks foreign tourists and immigrants (Article 87), and assigns each individual with a unique tracking number (Article 91).

Foreigners with fake papers, or who enter the country under false pretenses, may be imprisoned:

* Foreigners with fake immigration papers may be fined or imprisoned. (Article 116)

* Foreigners who sign government documents “with a signature that is false or different from that which he normally uses” are subject to fine and imprisonment. (Article 116)

Foreigners who fail to obey the rules will be fined, deported, and/or imprisoned as felons:

* Foreigners who fail to obey a deportation order are to be punished. (Article 117)

* Foreigners who are deported from Mexico and attempt to re-enter the country without authorization can be imprisoned for up to 10 years. (Article 118)

* Foreigners who violate the terms of their visa may be sentenced to up to six years in prison (Articles 119, 120 and 121). Foreigners who misrepresent the terms of their visa while in Mexico — such as working with out a permit — can also be imprisoned.

Under Mexican law, illegal immigration is a felony. The General Law on Population says,

* “A penalty of up to two years in prison and a fine of three hundred to five thousand pesos will be imposed on the foreigner who enters the country illegally.” (Article 123)

* Foreigners with legal immigration problems may be deported from Mexico instead of being imprisoned. (Article 125)

* Foreigners who “attempt against national sovereignty or security” will be deported. (Article 126)

Mexicans who help illegal aliens enter the country are themselves considered criminals under the law:

* A Mexican who marries a foreigner with the sole objective of helping the foreigner live in the country is subject to up to five years in prison. (Article 127)

* Shipping and airline companies that bring undocumented foreigners into Mexico will be fined. (Article 132)

All of the above runs contrary to what Mexican leaders are demanding of the United States. The stark contrast between Mexico’s immigration practices versus its American immigration preachings is telling. It gives a clear picture of the Mexican government’s agenda: to have a one-way immigration relationship with the United States.

Let’s call Mexico’s bluff on its unwarranted interference in U.S. immigration policy. Let’s propose, just to make a point, that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) member nations standardize their immigration laws by using Mexico’s own law as a model.


19 posted on 05/01/2010 12:34:29 PM PDT by Liz (If teens can procreate in a Volkswagen, why does a spotted owl need 2000 acres? JD Hayworth)
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To: Willie Green

Mexico needs to change its laws to allow US citizens the right to buy parts of Mexico and institute a Free State.


20 posted on 05/01/2010 12:39:53 PM PDT by Paladin2
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