07/05/2007
The Houston Chronicle has an editorial on how Mexico has a similar problem to the one the United States has — poor people pouring across the border from the south.
[I]llegal immigration has a profound impact not only on the United States but on the country left behind.
For one thing, even as hundreds of thousands of workers cross the northern border for better opportunities, they leave behind unpicked fields and other chores undone that attract another set of immigrants — those who cross Mexico’s southern border from Guatemala and other Central American countries. The low wages and the poor living conditions in Mexico are an improvement for some.
As well as being a source of migrants and a crossroads, Mexico, for some, is a final destination.
Those who enter Mexico illegally have committed a criminal offense, and under 1974 law are subject to two to five years in prison. This law is being revisited by federal legislators who don’t want to be hypocritical in their objection to criminalizing immigration in this country.
The number of illegal immigrants detained in Mexico nearly doubled from 2002 to more than 240,000 last year. They came from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
Human rights activists in Mexico and the United States express concern at the level of abuse of immigrants in Mexico, a problem the federal government acknowledges and is grappling with. Existing laws fail to protect the rights of migrants, and it is difficult for those who suffer extortion, robbery, assault and sexual abuse on their journey to obtain access to the judicial system.
Mexico has had its own tragedies involving human trafficking. Recently, a truck accident that took place in Chiapas resulted in the death of six illegal immigrants from Central America on a truck containing 200 people. When the accident occurred, the driver turned off the air conditioning and ran away, while those inside struggled to get out.
The incident cannot fail to bring to mind the 19 illegal immigrants who died in a truck near Victoria. Perhaps neither Mexico nor the United States should throw stones across the border.
Mexico’s other border: Our neighbor also copes with illegal immigration in this desperate flow to the north, Houston Chronicle
The reference to stone-throwing is meant to suggest that the the US and Mexico are both living in a glass house. That’s wrong — Mexico is invading the US, and being invaded from the south by Central Americans. The United States is not invading Mexico, puts almost no one in jail for illegal entry, and spends a lot of time and money saving the lives of illegals entering through the desert.
In the meantime, as I said when someone used this metaphor before, Mexican illegals are throwing real stones at the Border Patrol. They forced down a helicopter that way, and have injured many Border Patrol officers.
Mexico doesn’t need to be nicer to Central Americans, it needs to stop the invasion of the United States.
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