Do Mexicans really Want To Live In Detroit

We spend some 20 billion dollars a year and have deployed about 25,000 border patrol agents, of various types, along our southern border to prevent the illegal migration of Mexicans, Central Americans and drugs into the US. It is a losing battle. Drug interdiction is a sham, and will remain so until our politicians and senior enforcement officers get serious about the war on drugs by tackling money laundering. Without the ability to wash their money, cartel bosses would be sleeping on mattresses stuffed with cash and their safe houses would be awash in billions – far too much to spend at the Walmart in Puerto Vallarta. So, for example, when Wells Fargo and Rabo bank got caught laundering several billion cartel dollars, instead of fining them a mere fraction of the amounts laundered, with no further punishment, had the US attorney opted to levy fines double the amounts laundered and hauled a few banking execs off to prison for 30 years, those avenues of moving money would soon dry up. Problem solved. The illegal migration of human beings, on the other hand, is a far more difficult problem to contend with. 

   I have spoken to a number of border patrol agents in the Nogales area and, aside from the ennui that has taken hold, under the stresses imposed by a constant barrage of political assaults and the haplessness of their assignations, a common theme that emerged was the unofficial mandate of humanitarianism; to save the lives of migrants stranded in the Sonoran desert of southern Arizona. Officially, since 2001, over 3,000 migrants, children, women and men, have died in the deserts of southern Arizona alone. Who knows what the real toll is.

   So what draws migrants to gamble their lives on the risks of making the trek into the US. Is it  borne of some burning desire to live in Detroit. Or, Chicago, Fargo, Denver, Idaho Falls or some other, half year around, frozen hellhole? Not, at least as to Mexican illegals. As put by one of the border agents I spoke with, “Nah, some want to stay, sure, but a lot of them just want to make enough money to send some home and save enough to head back themselves. The farm migrant guys come so that they can make enough money to live on when they go back.” This sentiment was echoed by many people I spoke with in Mexico, who had migrated northwards, both legally and illegally, only to voluntarily return after several years. Most returned with sufficient funds to open small business, everything from self owned cabs to real estate offices, restaurants and other small business ventures. All had sent money home to help support relatives during their absences. As one friend explained it to me, Mexico is economically polarized between rich and poor, with a middle class that is slowly graduating into the mix, albeit as a minority. Most, about 70 percent, of the economy operates in the gray markets and bank loans, most assuredly to start small businesses, are hard to come by. Another acquaintance told me, “Look, if it was easier to go back and forth across the border, most would. A lot of them (illegals) stay in the US because they are scared to risk coming back before they've saved enough money, because they might not make it back north.” All of this is suggestive of a solution, at least to Mexican illegal migration, that is not mired in the politics of “all or nothin.”

   First, worth positing, is that any solution would necessitate abandoning present politicization of the migration issue. Democrats see illegals, the encouragement of their participation in elections in some states, and their conversion into citizens through amnesty programs, as a vehicle for bolstering their constituencies, while Republicans are adverse to the latent burdens on our social safety infrastructure and mired in the xenophobic hysteria of their fringe constituents. Neither are altruistically driven and both are counter-productive. In truth, Mexicans are among the hardest working, innovative people in the world, imbued of a rich culture and familial loyalties. Their contribution to our economy and the American cultural landscape is immeasurable. The question remains, of how to integrate these contributions with a manageable, realistic immigration scheme. Logic would suggest a bifurcated system. 

   One prong of such a system, would entail the issuance of work visas, say yellow cards, that would allow holders to migrate freely, back and forth across the border, but would require they be treated as any American worker by obtaining social security cards and health insurance, paying taxes and contributing to the social safety infrastructure. Members of this class would be entitled to the benefits available to any present green card holder, save that a path to citizenship would require first applying for a green card, after a number of years, and then pursuing citizenship as may green card holder after the requisite time has passed.

   The second prong, perhaps as an orange card designation, would provide for issuance of work visas, again allowing free movement back and forth across the border, absent any requirements for tax or contribution payments and barring any rights to participate in US benefits. Such status would also disallow a path to citizenship.

   Both classes should be subject to criminal background checks and be entitled to mandated minimum wages.

   The benefits for the US, aside from the virtues of the Mexican labor force, would be considerable. Resources presently expended on forestalling illegal migration from Mexico could be diverted to combating narcotics smuggling, assuming no realistic efforts to do so are made on the money laundering side of things, and intrusions by terrorists. My suspicion is that significant budget cuts could be made. For Mexico, the free migration of its people would harbinger an influx of capital and an acceleration of small business and middle class growth. It would also make sense, under such a scenario, given that benefit to Mexico, to seek joint arrangements to secure Mexico's ports of entry from intrusions by terrorist groups, such as ISIS. A final upside for the US would be the emergence of a dominant middle class in Mexico which would tend to stabilize that country, economically and politically.       

   The paradigm of Central American migration presents a very different conundrum. Many illegals entering the US from Central America are seeking asylum from political turmoil and the threats posed by criminal gangs, whose control over some countries is almost virtual. Resolution of this, a burgeoning crisis, might well be best resolved though a joint program, between Mexico and the US, to establish asylum procedures that would allow resettlement in to both countries.

   Mexico is our most important neighbor. And, our relationship has become unnecessarily adverse because issues between the US and Mexico have become irrationally politicized in the US by both political parties, neither of which is acting altruistically. In truth, Mexico is a country that will, with time, come into its own and it would behoove us to embrace, rather than further alienate, her.