Calderon makes demands; Mexicans have "right to work" in U.S.; admits harm to Mexico of emigration

Posted Fri, Sep 28, 2007 at 7:13 am
From this:
Mexican President Felipe Calderon told U.S. governors Thursday that immigration is an inevitable, natural phenomenon and he urged the U.S. Congress to approve reforms that would allow more Mexicans to work legally north of the border.

Calderon demanded that the United States respect "the right to work wherever one can make the greatest contribution."

"Immigration is a natural phenomenon that is economically and socially inevitable"...

In a rare acknowledgment of the costs of migration for Mexico, Calderon said his country "doesn't not celebrate migration ... our best people are the ones who go."
The last is probably a good thing from the perspective of Mexico's leaders: the "best people" might press for change.

Richardson and Perry were absent, but never fear because the U.S. was ably represented by two of our super-tough politicians - including Janet Napolitano - who vehemently spoke out against Calderon's comments, nearly causing an international incident:
Describing his many visits to Mexico since his first one 40 years ago, [California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger] lifted a line from his movie "Terminator," quipping, "I always look forward to saying, 'I'll be back."
Well, maybe not. Of course, if there were fewer Mexican partisans in California and the U.S., it might make Arnie a little more comfortable about not being such a wimp.

And, from our Extreme Irony file:
[Eduardo Bours, governor of the border state of Sonora] also called for a crackdown on U.S. weapons that "cross the border all too easily." Calderon said weapons illicitly smuggled in from the U.S. had been responsible for killing dozens of Mexican policemen.
That's certainly a bad thing, but illegal aliens from Mexico have been responsible for tens of thousands of violent crimes here in the U.S.

Tags: 
janet napolitano
arnold schwarzenegger

Comments

Tanstaafl (not verified)

Fri, 09/28/2007 - 19:43

It is _inevitable_ that people will try to displace and take what their more prosperous neighbors have, if they can. It is _natural_ for them to use their feet and wombs and mouths to do so.

amanda (not verified)

Fri, 09/28/2007 - 20:12

"Immigration is a natural phenomenon that is economically and socially inevitable" Wrong. Sounds like Michael Bloomberg and his little tides metaphor. Immigration is a policy. It is determined by what the government does (or doesn't do). The U.S. government started this 'natural phenomenon' with the 1965 Act and then in 1986 passed an intentionally weak law which then had zero political will from the Executive Branch to enforce. According to this 'natural phenomenon' claim, if we had real employer sanctions all this time, we'd have EXACTLY as many people here as we do now. True, it is inevitable that some people from a corrupt and poor neighboring country will migrate to a much richer country if there are surmountable barriers to entry, available work, and statistically improbable chance of deportation once you're there. But this isn't what they're saying--they want people to believe the whopping lie that there is nothing that receiving country can do about it so why bother? Open the floodgates. The related lie is the mass deportation straw man--say there's nothing that can be done with 12 million people from a deportation standpoint (typically expressed as 'round them up'), so why bother? Give them amnesty. Why do you think the OBL (open borders lobby) is petrified at any form of ID verification or illegal hiring sanction? Because they know deterrence works and you don't even need that much enforcement for the word to get out and if that happened their big lies would be exposed. Once empirical effects of enforcement become evident, the public would start demanding even more of it. Nightmare political scenario for those who don't believe America should be a sovereign nation or don't believe nation-states should exist at all, illegal labor profiteers, and transnational Latino power groups.

JinLA (not verified)

Sat, 09/29/2007 - 04:08

I wonder, if we made illegal immigrants play by the same rules middle-class American citizens do -- pay taxes, work for a company that pays into workers comp, carry insurance on your car, have a driver's license, be liable for any medical bills you incur, pay for your own children, adhere to zoning laws -- would illegal immigration still be considered a "natural phenomenon" in Mexico?

Tanstaafl (not verified)

Sat, 09/29/2007 - 07:32

amanda is right. The only support for immigration is big lies. The truth is it is inevitable only if we don't do anything about it. "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." - Edmund Burke

Fred Dawes (not verified)

Sat, 09/29/2007 - 12:01

As I have said one million times before population is a weapon and that weapon is being used on YOU.