Borders

I have to say it is a lot more intense along the southern US frontier than on the 49th. (Let me quickly remind that I am not on the frontier or anywhere even near – it’s a two day drive north of SMA). The immigration issue is huge here, as is the size, depth, and complexity of the drug issue. I feel guilty trying to condense this into a few glib one-liners. But it never stopped me before.

You will have been watching with bated breath the pro-immigrant manifestations in the US over the weekend to see if there were more Mexican flags than American. It has come down to this. The flag spotters were out in force in Washington, New York and LA. I think the protesters got the memo because American flags seemed to be the order of the day (thankfully). Before you dismiss this as trivial note that immigrant remissions (dollars sent back to the wife and mom in Tototonico), are the 3rd (after petroleum and tourism) most important contributor to Mexico’s GNP.

Proponents argue that immigrants, (even illegal immigrants), are good for the country, noting that much US wealth creation, over two centuries, was on the backs of helpless immigrants. Pres. Fox outraged the US when he said on behalf of Mexican illegals: “they’re doing work in the US that even blacks won’t do,” – in fairness he later apologized for being so insensitive.

No one knows how many illegal Hispanic immigrants are in the US. They are overwhelmingly but by no means all Mexican – ten’s of thousands escaping bad governments from Guatemala to Puente del Fuego have gotten into the US thru the Mexico/US border. Migration from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua has been huge, not to mention Cuba.

An estimated 11 million illegals are currently in the US but they have no idea. Estimates of rate of arrival range from 100 to 350 thousand annually – but it is unclear how many of these return voluntarily, (Mexicans do not find crossing illegally to be that big a challenge, so many come home for Xmas and mom’s birthday), nor whether these figures factor in the 10 thousand odd deported every month. In any case illegals represent a drop in the bucket compared to total US population of close to 300 million. Furthermore they all appear to be getting jobs.

The problem is that the existing population of Hispanics (many of whom are third, fourth and 5th generation) recently passed that of blacks in the US, nearing 14% or 40 million. Growth is projected to continue strong and surveys in Mexico indicate as many as 30 million more would rather be in the US. This scares the hell out of some folks in he US who apparently want to keep the race pure. No one seems to worry that more than a quarter of all Americans claim themselves to be of German origin; nor to remember when, at different times since 1850, German, Polish, Irish and Italian immigrants represented a much larger percentage of the US population at those times than do Latinos today.

Mexico had the temerity this week to present a bill to legalize possession of small amounts of grass, coke, heroin (yes, you are reading this correctly), LSD, ecstasy and some amphetamines. You may think this is an attempt to drive the US mad, and indeed it does. But the real reason is to free up valuable police time. Every time the local police catch someone with a bit of weed (or other) they have to report it to the feds. {It is part of Mexico’s cooperation with the US on their “war on drugs”.) In any case, the effect is that making such an arrest triggers about four days of paper work on the part of the local police office. Local police are driving this legislation, and the quid pro quo is a tightening of enforcement on dealers and traffickers. But they may have to change some of the words to appease the official US protest.


Mexicans do not typically suffer an enormous ego boost by going to the US. On the other hand, when Mexicans go south they dominate the rest of Latin America in virtually every endeavor Brazil and Argentina may produce the odd good football player but the size of their leagues and the average pay for their players pales compared to that of Mexico. Mexican business dominates the Americas. Carlos Slim (Telmex) is the only Latino on the short list of the worlds richest. Mexico recently won the regional polo championship against Argentina. Mexican soaps dominate Spanish language TV programming. Mexico has the most theatre, the most museums, the most churches, the most antiquities, the most art and the most Universities. By far!

But Mexico’s relationship with the US is driven by immigration and drugs. A spin doctor's nightmare. Go figure.

Changing the subject rapidly, only 35 days left before the kick-off for the world soccer cup. The “TRI” as they say in Mexico (pronounced “tree”), are those 23 selected players that will sport the three national colors of Mexico – red, white and green). President fox insisted the team stop by his offices for words of encouragement. Children and fans are being solicited to send a brief message to “El Tri” to encourage them to at least get past the first round. The volume of paper in play is overwhelming! But no pressure yet!!!

If the “TRI” win the Cup, each player will get an additional quarter million dollars. Even if they lose and come second they will each get an additional 200 thousand dollars. To put things in perspective, note that the Spanish national team will get an additional ¾ million per player if they win the World Cup, and half a million if they come second. Hey these guys are serious!!!

Off to Canada, eh! It will be interesting to see what I have been missing.