I'm Getting Too Old For This...

On one hand I am a fan of very liberal immigration policies. But on the other hand I'm for shutting it down to a trickle. It's the latter hand that lives in this reality so for the sake of argument I'm usually arguing against liberal immigration policies (though I try to work in my caveats & expand on those when I can).

But gimme a freakin' break. A foreign head of state has no damn business criticizing another country for trying to cut down illegal immigration - especially when said bitchy president's country is the one with the most people trying to immigrate illegally.

Mexico Promises to Block Border Wall Plan

Uh huh.

"The Mexican government, angered by a U.S. proposal to extend a wall along the border to keep out migrants, pledged Tuesday to block the plan and organize an international campaign against it."

I want to see them try. & notice the slant - the wall is to block "migrants". Not illegal immigrants, gang members, drug smugglers, or terrorists. (& yes; I'm still opposed to the war on some drugs just like most other prior restraint based laws - I'm just using it as an example). It's pretty clear where they want the sympathy to go isn't it?

"Facing a growing tide of anti-immigrant sentiment north of the border, the government has taken out ads urging Mexican workers to denounce rights violations in the United States. It also is hiring an American public relations firm to improve its image and counter growing U.S. concerns about immigration."

That'd be anti-illegal immigration sentiment. Most folks are fine with people who wish to come here & try to do it as prescribed.

"Mexican President Vicente Fox denounced the U.S. measures, passed by the House of Representatives Friday, as 'shameful.' His foreign secretary, Luis Ernesto Derbez, echoed his complaints on Tuesday."

it'd be nice if Bush came out & denounced Vicente's comments as "none of his damned business" but alas we don't have a president who is willing to criticize Vicente. Course maybe if Vicente started calling the border patrol on folks who crossed illegally Bush would at least accuse him of vigilantism.

"Mexico is not going to bear, it is not going to permit, and it will not allow a stupid thing like this wall,' Derbez said."

I estimate a war with Mexico would last about a week before they gave in. & that's using only militia against them. so for their sake I really hope they didn't really mean to imply that they would prevent us from building on our own property by force. I'm 14 hours from the border. That's a hard day’s drive. By the time I got there I'm pretty sure it'd be over except for the cleaning up. Hell, just the bloggers in Arizona could probably muster enough support to hold off a battalion for a few days.

"What has to be done is to raise a storm of criticism, as is already happening, against this,' he said, promising to turn the international community against the plan."

Ah. so they are logically & morally impaired, but not suicidal. I wonder if anyone has bothered to think that we really don't give a damn what the international community thinks about what we do within our borders. Well at least most of us don't.

"At least 10 million Mexican citizens are believed to be living in the United States. U.S. authorities believe about half of them do not have papers.
In 2004, Mexican migrants north of the Rio Grande sent home more than $16 billion in remittances, according to Mexico's central bank, giving the nation its second biggest source of foreign currency after oil exports."

See what happens when ya follow the money?

"Many Mexicans, especially those who have spent time working in the U.S., feel the proposal is a slap in the face to those who work hard and contribute to the U.S. economy."

"Many" is a subjective term in journalism. It implies a large number, but often seems to mean simply the two people the reporter talked to about this subject. But I wonder if those who feel the proposal is a slap in the face are the ones who sweated the admittedly long & burdensome process of working here legally?

"When people heard this, it worried everybody, because this will affect everybody in some way, and their families,' Robledo said. 'They were incredulous. How could they do this, propose something like this?'
Robledo, whose son and mother are U.S. citizens, predicted the measure 'would unleash conflict within the United States' as small businesses fail for lack of workers.
He said many Mexicans felt betrayed by the anti-immigrant sentiment.
'We learned to believe in the United States. We have a binational life,' he said of Zacatecas, a state that has been sending migrants north for more than a century. 'It isn't just a feeling of rejection. It's against what we see as part of our life, our culture, our territory."

Lemme repeat that last bit:

"...It isn't just a feeling of rejection. It's against what we see as part of our life, our culture, our territory."

As a wise man once said property is the main reason for conflict. This man clearly feels whatever part of the u.S. he was working in is his to live in by right. That bespeaks a very dangerous situation. People will often (but not always) fight very hard for property they believe they are entitled to have. They've also been known to kill for it; indiscriminately at times. It doesn't matter if they're mistaken or their claims are invalid on the surface - if they believe it that's all it takes. From there the only reason violence won't occur is if they either feel it'd be fruitless or they think there's an easier way to achieve their goals.

& btw - you cannot "believe" in one country yet choose to remain binational. There's some room for disagreement but my basic feeling is that one country will ultimately get your allegiance & therefore you shouldn't bullshit around about it. Either this man is a Mexican or he is an American (or possibly one trying to become the other).

"The government is scrambling to fight on two fronts. On Monday, it announced it had hired Allyn & Company, a Dallas-based public relations company to help improve Mexico's image and stem the immigration backlash.
'If people in the U.S. and Canada had an accurate view of the success of democracy, political stability and economic prosperity in Mexico, it would improve their views on specific bilateral issues like immigration and border security,' Rob Allyn, president of the PR firm, told The Associated Press Tuesday."

Um, what the hell do they think an accurate view of Mexico's success with "democracy, political stability and economic prosperity" is? The government is almost as corrupt as the one in New Orleans & quite a few folks in the u.S. make more respectively than Mexico does as a country. I mean would it really make sense for Mexico to say that their folks needed to come to the u.S. for work if they really had an economy going on? Not that being poor is bad, either for a person or a country - but damn! For people to get a more positive image of Mexico's economy they don't need a PR firm - they need accountants, statesmen, a constitutional convention, & a small to medium scale cultural revolution.

Jose Luis Soberanes, head of the government's National Human Rights Commission, suggested Mexico go further.

"I would expect more energetic reactions from our authorities,' Soberanes told local media. 'It's preferable to have a more demanding government, more confrontation with the United States."

Again, I give it a week if we limit ourselves to militia. Soberanes does not know of which he speaks, or the extent his words are construed. Now Americans frequently disagree about many a thing, but I think enough of us would get a might riled if outsiders tried to dictate what we could & couldn't do with our own property.

As Charlie Daniels put it:

"From the sound up in Long Island out to San Francisco bay
& everything that's in between them is our home
We may have done a little bit of fighting amongst ourselves but you outsider people best leave us alone
Cause we'll all stick together & you can take that to the bank
That's the cowboys & the hippies & the rebels & the yanks..."

Course Mr. Daniels wrote that in the early 80's (If I recall) & nowadays I wouldn't count on Frisco or our modern equivalent of hippies, but hell I think just the rednecks in the country (& I'm not too proud to deny that I'm one of them) could handle things.

Again I sincerely hope that the use of force was never meant to be implied by those words quoted above.

"Mexicans are outraged by the proposed measures, especially the extension of the border wall, which many liken to the Berlin Wall. Some are urging their government to fight it fiercely."

The Berlin wall was used to keep people from leaving a communist country. The u.S. wall will be used to keep people from illegally entering a capitalistic (well in theory at least) country. See the difference? A prison is a place where people cannot leave. A secured house is one where people cannot enter unless invited.

"Our president should oppose that wall and make them stop it, at all costs,' said Martin Vazquez, 26, at the Mexico City airport as he returned from his job as a hotel worker in Las Vegas. 'More than just insulting, it's terrible."

"At all costs". Again I hope it's another case of someone talking out of their ass.

Look, I'd be all for opening the borders if a few things happened: eliminating the "progressive" income theft tax & replacing it with a very modest (say 2%) national sales tax, getting rid of social security, Medicare, Medicaid, state run welfare programs in general, eliminating the minimum wage, privatizing education & re-introducing a backed currency. do those things & I'll have little issue with any damned body coming over here under a very streamlined citizenship program or even under a "guest worker" program of some sort. But until those economic concerns are addressed then it's necessary to limit the flow of people into the country, as well as limiting the flow of cash out of the country. & I would much prefer getting rid of the government controls but that's not realistic today so we have to concentrate on securing the borders.

Besides, from what I recall quite a large number of OTM's (Other Than Mexicans) are caught trying to sneak in the country from Mexico. Given the state of affairs with certain Islamic organizations I'd think it be a good idea to see exactly who is trying to come into the country & what exactly is making that ticking noise in their suitcase.

& don't get me wrong - Bush still pisses me off & I'm most concerned about the unconstitutional & immoral gun control that the government is imposing on us. But I couldn't let this pass, simply cause I get really annoyed when a neighbor tells me that I can't put up a row of shrubs on my own damn lawn.

So hopefully the senate will pass the bill & we'll build the fence. & keep building fences until they make us all good neighbors (as the old saying goes). I don't think Mexico would be foolish enough to use force to stop us from doing that, but as P.T. Barnum once said "no one has ever lost money by underestimating people" (or something like that).

Posted by Publicola at December 21, 2005 04:56 AM | TrackBack