Sunday, October 24, 2010

Mexico Implodes, Yet Expands Occupation of this Nation

Mexico on 'brink of implosion'
Chad Groening - OneNewsNow - 9/7/2010

An immigration reform activist thinks the continued rampant violence in Mexico should serve as a stern warning to Americans that it's essential for the U.S. government to shut down the border.

The U.W. State Department recently told American diplomats in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey to remove their children from the area due to growing threats of kidnappings and because of a shoot-out that took place in front of an American school there.

Beginning September 10, the Department says the U.S. consulate general in Monterrey will become a "partially unaccompanied post," meaning diplomats and other government personnel stationed there will not be allowed to have their minor children with them.

Mexican authorities have also confirmed that a second migrant survived the recent massacre of 72 Central and South Americans near the border where U.S. authorities suspect the Zetas drug gang killed the migrants for refusing to smuggle drugs.

"Mexico seems to be a society that is on the brink of implosion," laments Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). "The Mexican government is losing control of large sections of the country. There is violence that is just spilling out of control in those places, and it's right at our doorstep."

In fact, he says the hostility has already affected the U.S. side of the border. "We've even lost control of certain places inside our country," the FAIR spokesman explains. "Some of the border areas have been deemed too dangerous, even for government personnel to go in."

But Mehlman notes that the Obama administration does not seem to be taking this border crisis too seriously

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CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR SAW IT COMING IN 2005, AND OUR GOV HAS ONLY CONTINUED TO EXPOSE US TO MEX GANGS, DRUG CARTELS, AND MILLIONS OF ILLEGALS

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from the August 24, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0824/p08s02-comv.html
Is Mexico still a nation?
The Monitor's View
A survey released last week by the Pew Hispanic Center found more than four in 10 Mexicans are willing to leave their country to live in the US. One in five would risk a dangerous, illegal border crossing. Most surprising, one in three college graduates wants to flee. Before Washington takes up immigration reform this fall, it needs to take a hard look at Mexico's disillusionment.
Already, one in eight adults born in Mexico now lives in the US. And the Mexican economy is kept afloat partially by an estimated $16 billion sent back by immigrants to relatives.
Such numbers reveal a people so fed up with Mexico's dysfunctional politics and stagnant economy that their nationalism is wilting. While more than half of Mexico's 106 million people are officially poor, the Pew survey found an inclination to migrate "evident across a broad swath" of the population.
This wide push to leave is probably now as strong as the pull of higher wages, social advancement, and family connections in the US. And yet, Mexican leaders remain in denial about this propensity for mass exodus.
All this spells trouble for proposals by President Bush and some in Congress to set up a temporary worker program as a way to reduce the burden of illegal migration. The Mexican demand for such US "guest" visas could be, by some estimates, half a million a year. Yet the numbers in the proposals fall far short of that. The US could hardly absorb such a large wave of humanity without further challenges to its civic stability.
In other words, a guest-worker plan is a false promise of ending the waves of illegal border crossings.The challenges on America's southern flank are only getting worse. Arizona and New Mexico this month declared emergencies along their borders with Mexico, citing a rise in crime related to drug and people smuggling - and an inability by Washington to stem the violence. And the US ambassador to Mexico also criticized its leaders for not curbing border violence; he made a point by closing the consulate in Nuevo Laredo.
Just five years ago, Mexico had great hope of reform after the ouster of the Revolutionary Institutional Party, or PRI, which had governed since 1929. But President Vicente Fox's reform efforts have faltered. The nation's three main parties remain internally divided and unable to compromise. Decades of oil wealth have left people too willing to take handouts rather than accept the kind of taxation that creates citizens with a stake in government. With Mr. Fox a lame duck, Mexico is heading for a presidential election next July that could see another weak leader.
As dissatisfaction with politics and justice translates into Mexicans voting with their feet, the US needs to recognize that the "border issue" is much more of a "Mexico issue."
The US should further beef up border security, but also help Mexico regain national integrity. Legally hiring Mexicans is hardly a solution.
As it is doing with Africa, the US must peg better economic relations to better governance in Mexico, such as laws allowing referendums and run-offs for presidential elections. Rather than view such pressure as gringo meddling, the Mexican people might just welcome a challenge to their government. And think of staying put.

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