Silence Magnifies Death

So perhaps you’ve heard the story of evil America trying to enact a
draconian immigration policy towards Mexico. It’s the policy that does
things like:

• Be able to confirm people are here legally if they do things like,
  say…look exactly like a Mexican citizen and speaking zero English…in a
  border state…hanging out in a known day-worker area.

(not sure why that’s suspicious…)

• make sure they’re here legally before they can work

• be allowed to deport people who are here illegally

…you know…pure evil stuff.

[ Remember that Canada, the U.K, France, South Korea, Switzerland, Germany,
China, Spain, and pretty much every other semi-modern country in the world
also deport people for being there illegally. ]

Anyway, a necessary part of that story is painting the Mexicans and their
government as the good guys. They’re the open-minded, open-hearted,
good-natured people who just want an opportunity, right?

Then why do they deny that same opportunity to their southern neighbors?

Mexico’s immigration laws make ours look like the entrance restrictions on
open-mic night. Here are a few key points right from
their own official immigration policy [PDF].

Just as a spoiler, their policy is oriented around one central concept: a
policy that’s good for **Mexico**–not for those trying to come there.

Article 3, section VII

Ok, so that’s making sure immigrants are assimilated and distributed (so
they become Mexicans instead of building up identity-pools of their previous
culture). Elitist. Condescending. Assuming their culture is better.

Article 32

So, based on studies of who’s in the country, they want to determine who can
come to the country based on what they can contribute.
Classist. Elitist. Not respectful of hardworking Salvadorans.

What? The government has the audacity to claim that THEY can make a
judgement of who’s useful elements for the country? And that they can
support themselves AND their kids? I have only one word for this:
Racist.

[ note: racism actually doesn’t apply, it’s just the best way to win an
argument. ]

Oh, and here are the reasons Mexico can deny you entry into the country:

That’s too funny. Try going to Mexico as an American and getting a job
without going through the extensive, multi-year process. You will be denied
and deported.

Legal immigration to the U.S. increased from 250,000 in the 1930s, 2.5
million in the 1950s, 4.5 million in the 1970s, and 7.3 million in the 1980s
to about 10 million in the 1990s.[38] Since 2000, legal immigrants to the
United States number approximately 1,000,000 per year, of whom about 600,000
are Change of Status immigrants who already are in the U.S. Legal immigrants
to the United States now are at their highest level ever at over 37,000,000
legal immigrants.
Illegal immigration may be as high as 1,500,000 per year with a net of at
least 700,000 illegal immigrants arriving each year to join the 12,000,000
to 20,000,000 that are already there.[39] (Pew Hispanic Data Estimates [40]) Immigration led to a 57.4% increase
in foreign-born population from 1990 to 2000.[41] — Wikipedia ]

Wait. So that means if there are too many non-Mexicans in Mexico already,
they reserve the right to deny you entry just for being non-Mexican? I think
they just hate Guatamalans. See racism.

Radical.

Awfully choosy.

According to an April 7th, 2005 General Accounting Office (GAO) study
entitled, “Information on Criminal Aliens Incarcerated in Federal and State
Prisons and Local Jails” [Report # GAO-05-337R] prepared for the
Congressional Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims: “27% of the total population in all U.S. prison systems (including city,
county, state and federal) is composed of criminal aliens.”

Oh, and here’s
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer grilling President Calderon of Mexico
about Mexican immigration policy:

—

BLITZER: All right. Let’s talk a little bit about Mexico’s laws. I
read an article in “The Washington Times” the other day. I’m going to read a
paragraph to you and you tell me if this is true or not true. This is from
“The Washington Times”: “Under the Mexican law, illegal immigration is a
felony punishable by up to two years in prison. Immigrants who are deported
and attempt to reenter can be imprisoned for 10 years. Visa violators can be
sentenced to six year terms. Mexicans who help illegal immigrants are
considered criminals.”

Is that true?

CALDERON: It was true, but it is not anymore. We derogate or we
erased that part of the law. Actually, the legal immigration is not a — is
not a crime in Mexico. Not anymore, since one year ago. And that is the
reason why we are trying to establish our own comprehensive public policy
talking about, for instance, immigrants coming from Central America…

BLITZER: So if…

CALDERON: — (INAUDIBLE).

BLITZER: So if people want to come from Guatemala or Honduras or El
Salvador or Nicaragua, they want to just come into Mexico, they can just
walk in?

CALDERON: No. They need to fulfill a form. They need to establish
their right name. We analyze if they have not a criminal precedent. And they
coming into Mexico. Actually…

BLITZER: Do Mexican police go around asking for papers of people they
suspect are illegal immigrants?

CALDERON: Of course. Of course, in the border, we are asking the
people, who are you?

And if they explain…

BLITZER: At the border, I understand, when they come in.

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CALDERON: Yes.

BLITZER: But once they’re in…

CALDERON: But not — but not in — if — once they are inside the —
inside the country, what the Mexican police do is, of course, enforce the
law. But by any means, immigration is a crime anymore in Mexico.

BLITZER: Immigration is not a crime, you’re saying?

CALDERON: It’s not a crime.

BLITZER: So in other words, if somebody sneaks in from Nicaragua or
some other country in Central America, through the southern border of
Mexico, they wind up in Mexico, they can go get a job…

CALDERON: No, no.

BLITZER: They can work.

CALDERON: If — if somebody do that without permission, we send back —
we send back them.

BLITZER: You find them and you send them back?

CALDERON: Yes. However, especially with the people of Guatemala, we
are providing a new system in which any single citizen from Guatemala could
be able to visit any single border (INAUDIBLE) in the south. And even with
all the requirements, he can or she can visit any parts of Mexico.

BLITZER: I ask the questions because there’s an argument that people
in Arizona and New Mexico and — and Texas, they say they’re only trying to
do in their states what Mexico itself does in the southern part of Mexico.

CALDERON: I know. And that is a very powerful argument. But that is
one of the reasons why we are trying to change our policy.

And let me be frank, Wolf. In the past, Mexican authorities were in a — in a
— in an unfortunate way in the treatment for immigrants. But now we are
changing the policy. We changed already the law. And that is different
today. We are trying to write a new story, talking about immigrants,
especially coming from Central American countries.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

—

So basically, Mexico is trying to back-step at this point because they
realize how bad they look. But even with their supposedly adjusted
policy, right from the President’s mouth, immigrants still can’t work
without papers, and if they get caught they get deported (and often robbed
first).

The whole debate is a joke. Forget all the talk of stopping immigration;
there’s nothing wrong with it—you just have to control its form and rate.
You can’t have a cohesive, functioning country by letting anyone in—whenever
they want to come—without vetting and documentation. Assimilation matters.
Mexico, along with the rest of the world, knows this. And so should we.

We’ve taken more Mexican citizens in the last two decades than we have taken
from Europe during the country’s entire history. It’s just too many people.
We need time to absorb those who are here legally, just like the gap in
immigration we had going from the 20’s to the 60’s. That’s an entire 40-year
block of time for assimilation.

We just need another assimilation period, and then we can start it up again.

Immigration is good, and right, and helps the United States. We just have to
be smart about it.

Notes

1. January 10, 2019—This was written many years ago in a tone I no longer
   use or support. It’s snark is from a time before Trump and everything
   that came with it, and I would never use such a tone today. In short,
   I’m pro-immigration, but just want it to be more controlled, to involve
   actual assimilation, and to have some measure of symmetry with the
   source country to avoid obvious hypocrisy.