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<title>How does Mexico treat its illegals</title>
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<h1>How does Mexico treat its illegals?</h1>
By Larry Elder</p>
Apr 6, 2006</p>
"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." </p>
Does Mexico practice what it preaches? </p>
First, Mexico put its military and police forces on its porous, zigzagged,
mountainous, crime-ridden southern border with Guatemala. Chiapas -- the South
Carolina-sized 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." </p>
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. </p>
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 percent
of Mexicans call Americans "racist"! When asked whether the United States' wealth comes from freedom and "plenty of opportunity to work," 70
percent of Americans agreed, while only 22 percent of Mexicans agreed.
Sixty-two percent of Mexicans said America became wealthy because "it
exploits others' wealth." </p>
While Americans, according to the poll, see Mexicans as hard-working (78
percent), Mexicans think of Americans as racist, intolerant and not very
hard-working. </p>
Racist? </p>
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. </p>
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! </p>
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? </p>
Intolerant? </p>
America legally accepts about one million immigrants per year, with perhaps
as many as 12 million people living here illegally, about half of whom come
from Mexico. Many estimate that 500,000 or more people enter the country
illegally every year. California Lieutenant Governor 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. </p>
Not very hard-working? </p>
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 percent fewer hours
than Americans. </p>
President Bush, against the wishes of many in his own party as well of half
of all Americans, makes the reasonable case for a guest worker program that
would allow or provide some sort of legal status for those living here
illegally. Latino "activists" do that cause harm by staging protests
and waving the Mexican flag and demanding their "rights." For
example, Juan Jose Gutierrez of Latino Movement USA says, "We think that
the right thing to do is to grant full rights, full equality, under the laws in
the Constitution of the United States, to all immigrants, period." </p>
Americans raise legitimate concerns about the competition illegals pose to
unskilled labor, and that illegals cut in front of people already waiting in
line to get in the country legally. Americans resent expenditures for illegals
on education and health care, and problems posed by some who commit additional
crime in America. Illegals' attitude of entitlement helps to explain the
growing anger Americans feel toward illegal aliens. Students leaving high
schools, waving Mexican flags and chanting "Si se puede" do President
Bush -- and their "cause" -- no favor. </p>
[Editor's Note: See also "<a
href="http://www.townhall.com/phrd.html?loc=http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/Mexicos_Glass_House.pdf">Mexico's
Glass House</a>," just released by the Center for Security Policy
(requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).]</p>
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