IMMIGRATION QUESTION
Seal
Off The Borders?
Perhaps
The Answer Is Pitchforks And Torches
SAL
Commentary
In the discussions of how to
manage illegal immigration from Mexico, we rarely
hear the core issues. The left and the right refuse
to address the problem head-on.
There is the fact that
“illegal immigrants” are criminals. There
should be no leniency. Instead, the American system
is soft on these outlaws. The border-hoppers are
rewarded with housing, sustenance and health
benefits. The American taxpayer subsidizes these
perks.
Understanding that the average
American taxpayers, the same people who buy
vegetables every day, underwrite this, the argument
that migrant workers keep food prices down is
illegitimate. The American family farm is a thing of
the past. It is all but extinct and there are
probably more US Department of Agriculture employees
than there are independent American farmers.
The argument of labor wage versus end user
cost is an illusion. The spread goes to pay dividends
for US investors.
Capitalism is the best system
going. But there is a real flaw in the general,
law-abiding public paying Government to then
subsidize already profitable agricultural
corporations. The jobs belong to American citizens,
not outlaw invaders.
La Raza’s forked tongued
positions include that we need “effective and
orderly border control,” but out of the other
side of their mouths advocate “family
reunification.” “Family reunification”
means that once illegal aliens are here working,
their families should be able to legally immigrate to
the US. Still more rewards for desperados.
Advocates of the international
transgression suggest that to stop and search these
criminals is a civil rights violation. But anyone who
has traveled in Mexico knows that all travelers are
subject to systematic searches throughout that
nation. Roadblocks stand like mile markers across the
Mexican countryside, and seem almost as frequent.
This shakedown policy applies to nationals, tourists
or “illegal immigrants.” Like clockwork,
the discovery of contraband or illegal activity is
overlooked upon palm greasing, known
as “mordida.”
Mexico is a bastion of
corruption, cruelty and human rights
violations. It’s also a beautiful,
simpatico land, rich in resources. But try becoming a
Mexican citizen. See how you fare in that
endeavor. Try buying land in Mexico as a US
citizen. Good luck. Whatever you do, don’t tell
a Federale that he’s violating your civil
rights. Something very bad will probably happen.
Mordida is substratal to the
immigration problem, but it isn’t the
cornerstone. Ilya Adler is a commentator on
international affairs who has been a professor at
United States International Universitiy’s Mexico
City campus, Principal and Head of Latin American
Operations for Kochman, Mavreils Associates, Inc.,
taught international business courses at Alliant
International University and written extensively for
Business Mexico Magazine.
In 2001, Adler pointed out that
the Mexican government places the economic cost of
corruption at 9.5% of the gross domestic product
there. That figure is what they admit to being
the tangible losses.
While the business
community complains and waives their fists at
the government, shrieking for relief, 10% is a
typical tickle on business-to-business transactions.
What lies under the foundation of this trans-American
problem is certainly quicksand. How much
international business is lost when such practices
are common knowledge?
In a particular commentary Adler
concludes, “…is it realistic to expect to
have a clean government when everything else is
dirty?” He reports one informant’s
explanation, "If you want to survive as an
honest business person, you have to accept the fact
that you will do less business, with fewer
people." That is rationalization. See
if that tactic works for your local Justice of
the Peace.
Adler’s ultimate
observation is that businesses should take a hard
look at themselves before blaming graft on the
government. He stopped short of the real bedrock,
though.
Government isn’t bad.
Business isn’t bad. It is people that make
innate things bad. Take guns, for instance. The gun
is another thing that common Mexicans don’t
have.
There are many good people in
Mexico. There are many deep-down honest folks. Those
people aren’t running the show, though.
Mexico’s population is diverse. Many can’t
communicate among themselves, speaking either Spanish
or their ancient Native American tongues. Many of us
have heard that in Mexico there is no middle class.
That statement is more true than untrue. Where do you
think the non-Spanish speaking Mexicans fall in the
demographic?
Perhaps the US government should
send every illegal Mexican immigrant that can be
rounded up back to Mexico, each with a pitchfork and
torch*, then seal off our borders using US Military.
After all, these immigrants are good people who want
to do right by themselves and their families. Perhaps
when faced with the reality of having to fix their
own country, they will make the decision to seek a
better life right in their own backyards.
In the words of James Madison,
"If the impulse and the opportunity be suffered
to coincide, we well know that neither moral nor
religious motives can be relied on as an adequate
control. They are not found to be such on the
injustice and violence of individuals, and lose their
efficacy in proportion to the number combined
together, that is, in proportion as their efficacy
becomes needful."
*Note-pitchforks
and torches are legal in Mexico
* *
*
