Mexican President Makes Demands

Mexican President, Felipe Calderon is making demands of US Presidential candidates.

From this article:

En días pasados, el presidente de la República instruyó a su embajador y cónsules en la Unión Americana buscar contrarrestar ese clima antimexicano. Incluso, Calderón ha demandado de los aspirantes a la presidencia de Estados Unidos dejar de utilizar el tema de la migración como moneda política.

Translation: Lately, the President (of Mexico) has instructed his ambasadors and cabinet in the US to find a way to stop this anti-Mexican environment. Also, Calderon, has demanded that Presidential candidates in the United States stop using immigration as a campaign issue.

That is HILLARIOUS! The President of Mexico is placing demands on OUR presidential candidates? No, of course they shouldn't be using immigration as a debate topic!! How DARE they! Why bring attention to that? It's really an insignificant problem that no one is talking about.

The assumption here is that any attempt by Americans to cast aspersions on illegal immigrants means they are anti-Mexican or at the very least, anti-immigrant. Yes, there are some racists out there; xenophobes too. The majority of Americans however simply want our existing immigration laws enforced. There are supposed to be fines for employers who hire illegals. Sure, every once in a while, some company will be raided and it will make big news but compared to the vast numbers of illegal aliens employed by American businesses, it's statistically insignificant. It's good press, that's it.

Illegal aliens are a net drain on our economy. They (and their children, whether born here or not) consume more in tax dollars than they produce. This is especially true given the amount of money they send out of the country. That is money that does not get circulated back in to our economy and invested or taxed repeatedly.

Any legal immigrant should be furious about the illegal immigration debacle. The cheap labor provided by illegal immigrants reduces the wages of other workers purely on the supply and demand principle. All this nonsense that illegal immigrants are just doing the jobs that Americans won't do is completely illogical. It's true that we're generally not willing to do it for the same cost as illegal immigrants, it's not the same thing. Wages will rise to fill a gap in labor supply. Cheap labor also retards the use of more expensive technology that can replace the labor done by people.

Much of the cost of illegal immigration is hidden from the public. By way of example, let's consider public transportation. Here in Orange County, CA it costs $1.25 for any given trip or $3 for a day pass. I have been riding the bus quite a bit lately (my car is broken) and I have noticed that most of the people riding the bus are Hispanics who appear to speak little or no English and appear to be poor. We, the tax payers of Orange County subsidize the bus system and by extension, the transportation costs of illegal aliens.

I want to be very clear about something. I can understand why poor Mexicans want to leave Mexico and come and work here. I blame our own government for the policies that we have allowed them to create that not only allow this problem to grow, but actually encourage it. if I was poor and living in Mexico I'd be moving here too. It's not an excuse to break the law but our policies are actively harming both countries. By continuing to make illegal immigration attractive, it's prolonging what will amount to painful but necessary reforms in Mexico. If the poor in Mexico had no other alternative, they would demand more of their own government including an end to corruption and a other reforms that encouraged entrepreneurship, private property ownership, creation of capital, etc. As it stands, the Mexican government is getting off easy by continuing to drive more of their citizens north who will then send money back home. Politically speaking, it's a winning situation. For the governed, it's not so good. They continue to be mired in a socialist, corrupt system that all but the most ambitious can rise out of.