Mexico uses U.S. to avoid change

By Patrick Osio, Jr., The Sun News

November 13, 2005

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/sunnews/news/opinion/13156510.htm

President Bush announced he will begin the long-awaited Congressional push of his immigration-reform proposal. This brought new hope in Mexico that at long last President Fox's 2000 campaign promise may still be kept before next year's presidential elections....

It has long been held by most countries that immigration policy must be based on what is best for the country, not for the immigrant.

Mexico's immigration policy is very much based on this concept, as it should be. It is not easy for foreigners to simply apply for and receive a work-permit visa. Even to purchase a vacation home... requires a visa and proof of income from outside Mexico... Foreigners retiring in Mexico to obtain a visa must show proof of no less than $1,500 per month, and such a visa will not allow them to work.

...a low-income foreigner looking to immigrate to Mexico to compete with low-income national workers has no chance of being welcomed.

However, Mexico wants - no, insists - that the best U.S. immigration policy is one that considers what is best for Mexican immigrants and Mexico...

...for decades the U.S. looked the other way while generation after generation of Mexican governments showed a high degree of competence for helping themselves to the wealth of their nation but limited competence on managing their vast country's assets. For 70 years the U.S. was well aware that Mexico's political system was under an institutional authoritarian and corrupt dictatorship and did and said nothing.

...that flow of [Bracero ] workers acted as the steam-valve on a pressure-cooker holding social unrest at a minimum. This also allowed Mexico to ignore investing on needed economic development infrastructure to create more jobs that in turn would have kept more people home....

Fox's administration is well aware of the U.S. dependence on low-wage, hard-working Mexicans and feels he has a strong hand insisting that Mexicans already here be granted residency, and create a guest-worker program allowing several hundred thousand more workers to legally enter the U.S.

This again lets the Mexican government off the hook from investing on job creation infrastructure, while gaining close to $20 billion annually on remittances sent home by Mexicans in the U.S.

So let's hear from Mexico. What are you going to do to better the life of your own people so they won't have to leave?

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