A liberal immigration policy

...Liberals like me have ignored the way the steady trickle of new Americans has become a massive repopulation program, primarily from Mexico. During the 1970s, 120,000 Mexicans came to the U.S. every year. During the 1980s, it was about 200,000 a year. During the 1990s, it was 350,000 a year. Today, it's estimated at 485,000—every year. One out of every eight Mexican-born adults is now living in the U.S.

I no longer think it's okay to give the Mexican government a free pass. Pushing its poor towards the U.S. seems to have become Mexico's primary social policy...

This has been a threefold victory for the Mexican government. First, it eliminates the financial concern of how to care for these people. Second, the citizens who would be the angriest about the government's inadequacies keep leaving the country. Those who would vote, protest, stage walkouts, and revolt—instead keep voting with their feet. Which in turn protects The Powers That Be. And third, as a reward for watching entire communities empty out, they receive a huge influx of cash.

[...the negative effects of remittances...]

...Can you imagine the uproar in the U.S. if our national social policy for poor people was to encourage them to leave the country and go to Canada?

The Mexican government denies it is encouraging people to leave. But Mexico has still not made human trafficking illegal. They distributed 1.5 million comic books with instructions on how to cross the border safely. Yucatan distributed a similar book, complete with bonus DVD. Last December, Mexico began a publicity campaign reminding Mexicans that they were entitled to a $5.15 minimum wage in the U.S.—but it has not adequately enforced its own minimum wage of 60 cents. [To verify: Mexico might have occupation and region-based minimum wage laws --LW]

...It's fine to welcome immigrants and support their rights. But why do we attack our own government so loudly, and yet remain so silent on how their government is failing them? For a good liberal, there's nothing more damning than looking culturally insensitive. And Vicente Fox knows this; he knows that half of America will never dare criticize anyone who speaks another language. So he pushes his poor our way, knowing we good liberals will only rise and applaud.

Immigration · Tue, 06/20/2006 - 11:45 · · Importance: 1