It’s a Mexican Problem

Posted: 12:01 AM EST Saturday April 8, 2006

By trying to force the issue into one involving a so-called “right of migration,” Mexico and the Catholic Church are doing essentially the same thing as a rapist who blames the victim.

It should have been easy to come to this conclusion, but for some reason it wasn’t. After all, we saw another attempt at migration during the Cold War years; in Eastern Europe many people were attempting to leave for the West. They were entering illegally, but as refugees from political oppression, as well as the economic tyranny of the Communist Bloc, we let them in. Today, we see people fleeing Mexico for the U.S., partly because of the poor economic conditions there, but also because of the political conditions that keep the economic problems in place.

Mexico appears, on the surface, to be a democratically-run nation. Under the surface the truth is different. Mexico is an aristocracy masquerading as a democracy, and the people in charge aren’t going to change the situation because they do not want to lose the power, social standing and other perks of their positions. So, they are doing the logical thing. They are getting rid of the problem by telling their people to move north into the United States. The only difference between the Iron Curtain countries and Mexico is that Mexico, aside from lacking an outright authoritarian system, isn’t trying to keep people in; it is encouraging them to leave.

By trying to force the issue into one involving a so-called “right of migration,” Mexico and the Catholic Church are doing essentially the same thing as a rapist who blames the victim. Mexico protects its borders in the south, and prohibits non-citizens from owning land. Pretending that the regions north of the Rio Grande are stolen Mexican territory is dead wrong. If we invoke historic rights, it belongs to the “Native Americans” who lived there before the Europeans came in and not to Mexico at all. Besides which, shouldn’t Mexican be going after Spain for conquering the land of the Aztecs, et al., who ruled before Cortez came and messed things up for them?

If Mexico wants to solve the migration problem, it is simple to do. It has to stop blaming other people, open up its economy, allow a viable broad based middle class to evolve in the nation as a whole, and dissolve the aristocratic tradition that has a stranglehold on political power. Instead it has decided to blame someone else for the nation’s problems. Spain is too far away, so America is blamed instead. Mexico couldn’t hang on to the Southwest it claimed when other people migrated into the region. So, blame the nation that owns the area now.

Of course, there was more to it than that. Just ask any Texan about how the Lone Star Republic came into being. It wasn’t a part of the USA. It was its own nation before joining the Union. As for the Catholic Church, for an entity so concerned over civil rights and the well-being of people worldwide, it may be time to step in and call the Mexican government to the issue.

The Vatican is one of the wealthiest entities on the face of the earth, and could be of valuable help to the people of Mexico by putting some of that immense wealth to work in assisting in economic development. If Pope Benedict offered such help to Vincente Fox on the condition that the economy is opened up, you can be sure that Fox would turn it down. The reason being that a sufficient amount of that money wasn’t going into his personal bank account. Still it would be worth a try. Does anyone remember Anthony Quinn in The Shoes of the Fisherman?

On the other hand, let’s assume, that the Mexican migrants get their way. They cross over into the U.S., take over, and Mexico becomes the ruler of the 48 contiguous states. Washington D.C. goes out the door and there is no more U.S.A. What happens next? Simply, if Mexico doesn’t change its political and economic structure, everything will still be in a shambles. Not being able to blame the U.S.A for the problem any more, Mexico would have to turn elsewhere. The logical answer would be … Canada! After all, the small nations of Central American wouldn’t do. But Canada is big, and has lots more gringos to blame for the continuing situation.

Seriously, Mexico wouldn’t have much choice but blame the U.S.A, or Canada if it continues with the same old policies. Economies flourish best when there is more individual freedom, more personal responsibility, and more open opportunity for everyone. That is part of what is dragging America down today. We have cut off a lot of the personal freedom and opportunity. Just look at France for the eventual outcome. American must insist that Mexico handle the situation. Enforcing its border is a national right that must be respected, wartime or not. For Mexico to solve the problem it must imitate the America of about 100 years ago, allow the people to succeed, and in the end will have a better nation to govern, along with better relations with the U.S.A. Doing otherwise is foolish, but who said it takes brains to do a bad job of governing.

-- Steven Laib