The immigration debate in the US and Mexico its turning
complicated at its best and dishonest at its worst, in both sides of the border
there is plenty of hypocrisy. Everyone is pursuing their own selfish political
and/or economical interests, and if that means never solving this problem, so
be it.
Everything gravitates around two systems in perpetual moral
bankruptcy, one north, the other south of the Rio Grande.
North of the Rio Grande the once powerful “Coloso del Norte”
(Northern Colossus,)like the Mexican media calls the US receives thousands of
immigrants legal and illegal each year. Most of them from Mexico. Sixty per cent of
all immigrants into US are from that part of the world.
Lets zoom a
little bit into Mexico; second largest Spanish speaking country, most populous
Spanish speaking country (100+million people.)Second largest economy in Latin
America and the third commercial partner of the US for at least 30 years, barely
under Canada and China.
Unlike the US its population has
not been fostered by immigration from Europe due to the fact that Spaniards
came to conquer and loot, (they didn’t bring their families) and didn’t do a
thorough job in exterminating the natives as well as their Americans
(Europeans) counterpart did. So its population is mainly mestizos or natives
with a small percent of whites and Asians.
Despite of the fact that Mexico and
the US are from two different stocks of either white and/or native population
you could say that Mexico has been an appendage of US since its inception.
All the leaders of the Mexican
revolutions (independence and civil wars) found refugee and help in the US. (US
intervened in other countries since its birth)not to mention the Mexican American War.
From the very beginning US
infiltrated the Mexican government to influence policies in Mexico. In exchange
US will grant the Mexican political elite a great deal of slack regarding their
internal issues.
Two hundred years after its birth
Mexico finds itself more dependant of the US than ever and the same could be
said about the US. The most pressing issue now is indisputable crime. For others would be the economy, or immigration (all linked.)
In 2011, in the state of Tamaulipas
MX, a group of 72 immigrants from Central America, were kidnapped and later murdered in cold blood by one of the many rapacious criminal
organizations that control the border with US to exploit every possible
criminal endeavor.
These crimes would have been just
another massacre in a long list of unsolved murders along the wide Mexican
territory if one poor soul hadn’t survived the ordeal. Later that same person
identified Mexican immigration officials as the ones who delivered the
immigrants to the brutal cartel.
You might think these murders would
open a Pandora box, in which the Mexican government would pursue justice for
all immigrants crossing the Mexican territory to reach the American dream. Wrong! It just opened a box of pandoras that keep coming out without end in
sight.
The root of the problem is
entrenched very deep in the night of time, but is suffice to say that
corruption is prevalent in all areas of the Mexican government. Everybody knows
that in Mexico a moving violation is deleted right in the spot with a bribe.
As you ascend the chain of command
of the Mexican security apparatus the premiums (bribes) to solve any problem
civil or penal are adjusted according to the wealth of the suitor and the seriousness of the offense(like crooked insurance agent.) With this in context lets go back to the immigration issue For
the last ten years the immigration of Central Americans and others to US via MX
has been increasing adding this to the long list of problems that the Mexican
state is facing.
Central Americans emigrate to US
for the same reasons Mexicans, Albanians, Africans or Russians do, to find their
American dream, for some is work hard for a decent retirement, for others have a business, for others go to college, and for others just survive of the
magnificent services that this country offers to the poor.
To get to US Central Americans have
to cross multiple countries violating several sovereign states. In a perfect world,
immigration would take place respecting international treaties and borders to
guarantee the security of immigrants, and the integrity of the process. But we
live in an unpredictable world with many dynamic situations. USA is an
industrial power who has already peaked. The other countries are ascending that
lather. (to be continued.)
