Let's Try Something DIFFERENT

            Many Mexicans Say Immigration Inevitable

They name their babies Johnny and Leslie, so certain are they that their kids' future lies in the United States. Returning migrants sprinkle English into their speech as they talk knowingly about job markets in U.S. towns.

America may want to stop illegal immigration, but most Mexicans accept it as a fact of life they can't imagine changing.

Mexico's economy, society and political system are built around the assumption that migration and amnesties for undocumented migrants will continue _ and that the $20 billion they send home every year will keep coming, and almost certainly grow.

In fact, the government is counting on continued cash from a Mexican- born U.S. population it predicts will rise from 11 million to between 17.9 million and 20.4 million by 2030.

   

   America has never waged a war of conquest. America was never a colonial power. America is loathe to either.

   America needs to change that mentality.

   We should invade and conquer Mexico. It wouldn't cost as much as building a wall, maintaining the Border Patrol and doing so would solve many problems.

   We need oil - Mexico has oil. We need cheap labor - Mexico has that. We need another 5000 miles of oceanfront - ditto. Mexico's southern border is about the size of Idaho's border with Utah and would be much easier to secure. 3 out of 5 Mexicans declare they would prefer to live in America.

   There are a few obstacles. There are some 3 dozen multi-billionaires who would lose their income. The world 'community' would be outraged. Liberals would have more ammo.

   But that's about it. No big deal. And nothing new.

   William Randolf Hearst once owed 3 million acres of Mexico. His close friends owned another 6 million acres. This was just after the Spanish - American War. Hearst was banking on the United States following through and conquering Mexico.

   Instead, we let it slide. Then Mexico made their laws so exclusive of foreign ownership, that Hearst had to divest his holdings.

   The major downside to my proposal is the enfranchisement of Mexicans and the possilbility of them becoming on our dole.

   We have Trust Territories. Guam and Samoa to name two. Hawaii was a trust territory until the 50s. We can make laws that preclude entitlement to Mexicans for awhile. And we can prevent them from having a full vote in our elections.

  When Mexico is fully up to speed, I see no problem granting them the vote or full participation in our entitlements.

I say 'let's invade Mexico' NOW.

                                  Tell me where I'm wrong.

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    Many Mexicans Say Immigration Inevitable

They name their babies Johnny and Leslie, so certain are they that their kids' future lies in the United States. Returning migrants sprinkle English into their speech as they talk knowingly about job markets in U.S. towns.

America may want to stop illegal immigration, but most Mexicans accept it as a fact of life they can't imagine changing.

Mexico's economy, society and political system are built around the assumption that migration and amnesties for undocumented migrants will continue _ and that the $20 billion they send home every year will keep coming, and almost certainly grow.

In fact, the government is counting on continued cash from a Mexican- born U.S. population it predicts will rise from 11 million to between 17.9 million and 20.4 million by 2030.

"There have been amnesties and reforms before, and they will continue to occur periodically," said Jesus Cervantes, director of statistics for Mexico's Central Bank.

President Vicente Fox is one of many Mexican who considers the migrants "heroes," because they send money to their impoverished home villages, and in some cases risk death walking into America in pitiless desert sun.

Many families give their babies "American" names, figuring it will help them fit in when they make the inevitable trip north. In one central Mexican village, men on a dusty side road knowingly discuss which Long Island towns are best for day-labor work.

Cervantes avoids using the common metaphor of migration as an escape valve for Mexico's social tensions, but says the country of 105 million people would be in trouble if 11 million migrants returned en masse.

On the ground, the lure of America is evident. Abelardo Gonzalez, an elementary school director in the southern state of Oaxaca, said of his students: "From the time they are little kids, they have this idea of going north."

So many people have left the farming town of Atotonilco in central Tlaxcala state, 480 miles from the U.S. border, that a sort of U.S. job placement network has grown up. Migrants send word home of a vacancy for a gardener in Los Angeles, a carpenter in Houston or a dishwasher in Raleigh, N.C.

"A lot of people who leave already have jobs lined up," said Daniel Escalona Garcia, who sells building materials _ largely for homes being built for absent migrants.

When those homes will be inhabited is another question. Many remain half-built, or are finished but empty. It's common to see a well- built, two-story home being used to store hay. Skilled construction workers are scarce because most are in the United States.

"All of the good houses belong to people who have emigrated," said Jose Contreras, whose five children live in the United States. Some of his grandkids were even given American names before they left.

"They named one kid Johnny instead of Juan," the 79-year-old farmer said with a hint of disgust. "They thought it was a good idea."

In the past, only adult men would go, said Escalona Garcia, "but now it's entire families, and boys as young as 14 or 15."

Few in Mexico question the prevailing feeling that Mexicans have an inalienable right to go north, documented or not.

A proposal in the Mexican Senate last year that would have kept migrants away from particularly dangerous border crossings when temperatures soared was denounced as doing the United States' "dirty work." It was withdrawn.

Agustin Escobar, an immigration scholar at Mexico's Center for Research on Social Anthropology, is a maverick. He questions whether migration is good for Mexico, given that on average a migrant puts less money into the economy than a Mexican who stays here.

But he doesn't get much of a hearing. "There is a great deal of resistance on the part of the government to even consider analysis of these issues," Escobar said.

"The policy of not interfering with the flow of migrants has always been the easiest route."    Link

Comments

[Phoenix]

Here's a post with three links and not one comment. That's a shame.

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Comment.

[Will]

I have been straying away from commenting on this one, but since I am in the middle of completing my research paper and the ideas are all floating through my head I will have a stab at it.

1. 50 million people who haven't forgotten that the United States bought half of its territory in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. 50 million people who work harder than Americans and who would be damned sure to preserve their culture.

2. If the war in Iraq is hairy and had major unforeseen opposition, an invasion of Mexico would be horrendous. A completely unjustified war with Mexico for some beachfront property would be a hideous mistake.

3. The United States shares a border with Mexico, a border that is 2000 miles long. We can't even keep peaceful Mexicans out now, what happens when say a million Mexicans get real pissed off, come into America and say burn San Diego, Los Angeles, Houston, and Phoenix to the ground.

4. What if the pissed off Mexicans didn't come from Mexico to burn a city from the ground, millions could just as easily step outside their front door and throw a molotov coctail or eighty.

5. Language. Would 300 million Americans learn Spanish? Would 50 million Mexican learn English? Maybe after a century.

6. We need oil? What the hell are we doing in Iraq? Democracy?

I would say that perhaps we should crack down on employers and send illegal immigrants packing. Tell them to learn english, learn some basic skills, and apply for legal immigration.

[Phoenix]

Hey, Will,

Nice job. You make some good points. Scary points.

I'm not so sure Mexicans work harder than Americans, though. They work at hard jobs - labor intensive, and they're low-rent jobs. But if they worked harder than Americans, why isn't their country thriving like America? Where are the entreprenuers in Mexico like we have here who have made our country great?

We're in Iraq because we need a presence in the Levant to watch over those many nuked-up countries that don't like us and would like to see Israel snuffed off the planet. It's long-range strategy, but it's the right strategy. For example, do you think Iran really wants a showdown with 80% of our armed forces next door? They can have their showdown if they want, but it will last for about ten minutes. Israel is ready, and so are we. The problem with Mexicans becomes almost subliminal when you think what could happen if we were not on the offensive in this war on terror.

I definitely agree with your last statement.

Good luck on your paper! :)

[Will]

I would argue that they work harder. I would also argue that we work smarter.

[Phoenix]

I wonder if we gave them the opportunity if they would work smarter than we? I'm not denying that they work hard. No way. I've seen it.

Hey, Will.... I have a libertarian friend I met on a blog. He's a little extreme for my tastes, but he is quite sincere in his beliefs. He just sent me this - a link to a website. I thought you might want to check it out. I couldn't load it - I'm on a modem. Let me know what you think.

http://www.wehategringos.com/

Also....if you want, I'll be happy to copy edit your paper. That means - edit for grammar, etc. NO changing of context at all. You can email it if you want. I don't know if your professor takes points off for that kind of stuff or not.

[Steel]

Will, the post was a bit tongue-in-cheeck.

We don't need to invade Mexico.

At the rate things are going - they will annex us.

[Phoenix]

Annex means political cooperation. They're just going to subsume us. But before that happens, there will be a civil war. Man.. would that be ugly.

[Will]

Phoenix,

That wehategringos site is troubling. It starts with a flash video showing pictures of protestors holding signs like "This is our continent" and "Go back to England racists." My personal favorite was "Fuck the Alamo."

It is basically a bunch of angry Mexicans calling white Americans racist all under the context of "wehategringos.com".

A bassackwards take on history. One hell of an extremist ignorant worthless website.

[Will]

upon further review, I guess the flash intro is just to get visitors really pissed off at Mexicans. It is actually a site that encourages the deportation of illegal immigrants and enforcement of immigration laws.
I guess the intro did its job.

[Phoenix]

Hey, Will,

I'm glad I couldn't download it. I hate racism of any sort - NO MATTER the context, so I'm sure I'd have hated that. I also hate that kind of emotion-screaming appeal to establish a foaming fury to get a point across - even if it's a reasonable point.

I hope you got your paper. Please tell me you did. I was switching the saved copy with Appleworks after I emailed it back, and it disappeared off my screen! I have the original still, but emailed the edited copy. You get an A, by the way. :)

[Macker]

Good Lord Phoenix...you're still using Appleworks? :)

[Mexican]

Look I'm Mexican and I find it terrifying that Americans could actually consider invading my country again because you are right it wouldn't be so hard to overthrow our military and our government seeing as how we are a pacifist country. But what really is disturbing is that you think that we are backwards people who would welcome white Americans with open arms well let me tell you all something sure many Mexicans would love to live in the U.S but I guarantee you that their loyalty will always be to Mexico because even though we might want to work for a better life in the U.S we love our country with a passion and it truly hurts us to leave it but we do it out of necessity and most Mexicans in the U.S dream of one day going back to the fatherland. Don't think that just because your military is far superior to our that we will let you take our sovereignty without every man woman and child fighting to defend every last bit of Mexican soil and I am sure that all the Mexicans in the U.S would fight for their true nation. We will never become the second class citizens of Americans. You think Iraq went badly well that will be nothing compared to what we will bring but I can assure you all that Mexicans would rather die than be conquered by the U.S.

[Mexican]

Look I'm Mexican and I find it terrifying that Americans could actually consider invading my country again because you are right it wouldn't be so hard to overthrow our military and our government seeing as how we are a pacifist country. But what really is disturbing is that you think that we are backwards people who would welcome white Americans with open arms well let me tell you all something sure many Mexicans would love to live in the U.S but I guarantee you that their loyalty will always be to Mexico because even though we might want to work for a better life in the U.S we love our country with a passion and it truly hurts us to leave it but we do it out of necessity and most Mexicans in the U.S dream of one day going back to the fatherland. Don't think that just because your military is far superior to our that we will let you take our sovereignty without every man woman and child fighting to defend every last bit of Mexican soil and I am sure that all the Mexicans in the U.S would fight for their true nation. We will never become the second class citizens of Americans. You think Iraq went badly well that will be nothing compared to what we will bring but I can assure you all that Mexicans would rather die than be conquered by the U.S.