How Does Mexico Treat Its Illegals?

"We can't infringe upon the right of people to move freely within our territory," said Mexican President Vicente Fox during President George W. Bush's recent visit. Earlier, Fox said he stood by the statement he previously made to the BBC: "I dare say that in 10 years, the U.S. will be begging, will be pleading with Mexico to send it workers."

Does Mexico practice what it preaches?

First, Mexico put its military and police forces on its porous, zigzagged, mountainous, crime-ridden Southern border with Guatemala. Chiapas, the South Carolinasized Southern Mexican state that shares the longest border with Guatemala, is Mexico's poorest, most illiterate state. About Chiapas, one United Nations human rights commissioner said, "Mexico is one of the countries where illegal immigrants are highly vulnerable to human rights violations and become victims of degrading sexual exploitation and slavery-like practices, and are denied access to education and health care."

Typically, when Mexican authorities catch illegal aliens, they place them overnight in a detention center, then bus or fly them back to their country of origin. Despite the fact that Mexico militarized its border and deported 203,128 illegal immigrants in 2004, many illegals get through by bribing corrupt military and police.

Do Mexicans appreciate the way America has allowed so many poor, Mexican illegals to enter the United States? No. According to a recent Zogby poll, 73% of Mexicans call Americans "racist"! When asked whether the United States' wealth comes from freedom and "plenty of opportunity to work," 70% of Americans agreed, while only 22% of Mexicans agreed. Sixty-two percent of Mexicans said America became wealthy because "it exploits others' wealth." While Americans, according to the poll, see Mexicans as hard-working (78%), Mexicans think of Americans as racist, intolerant and not very hard-working.

Mexican Hypocrisy

Racist? Mexico should look in the mirror. According to the Houston Chronicle's Rachel Graves, around the turn of the 17th Century, Mexico imported more African slaves than anywhere else in the New World. As a result, tens of thousands of blacks (no one knows for sure, the Mexican census does not recognize them) live in Mexico, mostly in destitute villages in its poorest states. An estimated 30,000 to 40,000 blacks live in Costa Chica.

How do they fare? According to the Houston Chronicle, many are illiterate, struggling to get a decent education for their children from government schools. One Costa Chica missionary says, "The kids here are considered by their teachers to be largely unteachable." When stopped by the police, Mexican blacks are often instructed to sing the Mexican national anthem to prove their citizenship!

If so many Mexicans consider Americans racist, why do polls show that nearly half of Mexico's inhabitants say that their lives would improve if they could work here illegally?

Intolerant? America legally accepts about one million immigrants per year, with perhaps as many as 12 million people living here illegaily, about half of whom come from Mexico. Many estimate that 500,000 or more people enter the country illegally every year. California Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante is Hispanic. So is the man who holds the powerful position of speaker of the California Assembly. Los Angeles, America's second-largest city, has a Hispanic mayor, and of the 54 members of California's congressional delegation, nine are Hispanic. The former governor of California once proposed granting driver's licenses to illegals. And in California, under some circumstances, an illegal alien can apply for the cheaper in-state college tuition. Many predict the Hispanic governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, former Clinton Cabinet member, will run for President.

Not very hard-working? According to the International Labor Organization, Americans work more than almost anybody in the developed world, including Japan. The average American worked 1,824 hours in 2004. compared with the Spanish at 1,799 and the French at 1,441 hours. The Dutch put in even less, working 25% fewer hours than Americans.

Mr. Elder is an attorney, syndicated columnist, syndicated radio talk-show host and author of Showdown: Confronting Bias, Lies, and the Special Interests That Divide America (St. Martin's Press).

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Apr 10, 2006
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