It's no fun, being an Illegal Alien

I used to be a fan of Vincente Fox. He was the first man to capture the Mexican presidency from the PRI which has run the country uninterrupted since the conclusion of the Mexican Revolution almost 80 years ago. As a former Coca Cola executive, I figured he would bring good business sense to a government that from all outward appearances lacked it. I had hoped that he would end corruption and lay the foundations of economic prosperity and smooth the way for equal application of the rule of law across the nation. By making his nation stable, perhaps the most downtrodden citizens would not feel obliged to trek northward to the USA for a better life. I guess I was wrong. One need not look any further than the border each evening at dusk to glimpse the multitudes massing for their shot at economic independence to see that he has done nothing to alleviate this problem. Actually he has done something--his government has created a pamphlet that explains how to cross the border safely. From a humanitarian viewpoint this is a good idea. If people are going to cross the border illegally they may as well do it as safely as possible. From a government policy standpoint the nicest thing I can say is that it's irresponsible at best.

I saw this headline and the following story cross the newswires today:

Fox rejects stricter U.S. immigration policy and border wall

Mexico City, Jan 23, 2006 (EFE via COMTEX) -- Mexican President Vicente Fox on Monday rejected the stiffening of U.S. immigration laws and said that the proposed construction of a wall along the mutual border by his neighbor was a "disgrace."
"If they always have been on the side of democracy and the tearing down of walls, why are they building them? I don't understand it, I can't explain it to myself. It seems to me to be a disgrace," Fox said in an interview with the Televisa news show "Primero Noticias."
Fox, who will leave the presidency in November, promised "to do battle" on this matter and demanded a "comprehensive" solution to Mexico's immigration requirements.
He also demanded "an ordered, safe and legal arrangement for all of (the Mexican migrants) who are there (in the United States), and for those who are going to go there year after year."
For said that the construction of walls along the common border is in no way acceptable, but he added that the matter could be "discussed."
The U.S. House of Representatives on Dec. 16 approved a bill - currently being debated in the Senate - strengthening Washington's fight against illegal immigration.
The bill, which was sponsored by Republican Congressman James Sensenbrenner, of Wisconsin, authorizes the construction of a wall along several stretches of the border.
In addition, it makes entering the United States illegally - and helping others to do so - a criminal offense, facilitates the deportation of undocumented immigrants and increases the sanctions on employers who hire them.
(end)

Commentary

The first thing that struck me in the headline was the audacity of Fox "rejecting" the foreign policy that is being debated in our congress. Presidents of foreign nations do not have a vote in congress last time I checked. Fox has hired a PR firm to lobby our government on the matter and I have no problem with that as many nations lobby congress; but he should leave it at that.

It's clear to see that he has much to lose if we do anything drastic about the problem of illegal immigration. $17 billion in annual remittances by illegal aliens working in the USA is a nice way to paper over the real structural problems at home. Once here, the vast majority of aliens have no incentive to assimilate into the culture they now live in. Part of this is due to the fact that Mexico is so accessible, so there's no need to cut the ties to a home thousands of miles away and assimilate like so many other immigrant groups have done throughout our history. It is unfair to those legal immigrants and US citizens fighting for jobs at the entry level as a sea of illegal immigrants ensures wage depression for all. They also put a tremendous strain on all forms of our civic infrastructure. The state collects no taxes from illegal workers or the employers who knowingly flout the law which effectively sticks law abiding citizens with the bill for maintaining that infrastructure. Something that is rarely mentioned in the whole immigration debate is the impact that such a mass exodus of mostly young, able bodied men has on the villages they leave behind. Who is to play the role that these fathers, sons and husbands should be playing in their community? I fear there is a lost generation of children who will mostly know their father only as the man who sends home a check from some foreign land.

We as a nation need to find the political will to implement a "guest worker" program similiar to the braceros program that was in place in the 1940's. A key feature of that program was a certain percentage of the worker's wages were by law placed in a Mexican bank account. In theory this was a good incentive for workers to return to Mexico. In practice not much of the money ever made it back into the hands of the workers who earned it due to the endemic corruption in Mexico. Those workers who are already here illegally could pay a fine and join the program. After a grace period of say 6 months, anybody caught working here without the proper documentaion would be deported immediately and their employer heavily fined.
In the end everybody on both sides of the border would be the better for it.