Bad for both countries...

The invasion, in alarming numbers, of Mexicans illegally into the U.S. is taking a toll on the societies of both countries. Read these excerpts from an article in the San Francisco Chronicle which portends trouble if something isn't done...and fast...

Washington -- The current migration of Mexicans and Central Americans to the United States is one of the largest diasporas in modern history, experts say.

Roughly 10 percent of Mexico's population of about 107 million is now living in the United States, estimates show. About 15 percent of Mexico's labor force is working in the United States. One in every 7 Mexican workers migrates to the United States.
-Entire rural communities are nearly bereft of working-age men. The town of Tendeparacua, in the Mexican state of Michoacan, had 6,000 residents in 1985, and now has 600, according to news reports.

-Last year, Mexico received a record $20 billion in remittances from migrant workers. That is equal to Mexico's 2004 income from oil exports and dwarfing tourism revenue.

-The money Mexican migrants send home almost equals the U.S. foreign aid budget for the entire world.

As doubtful as it is, even if Mexico puts an end to it's rampant government corruption, there will be far too few able-bodied workers to assume the jobs made available by the inevitable burgeoning economy, because too many of them are in the U.S. You can't have one tenth of your work force in another country and expect to provide adequate labor for any developing industries. With that large a slice of a population in exodus, there has to be a concomitant degradation of the social/familial fabric of Mexican society. Families without fathers or husbands, and sometimes mothers and wives, towns without labor for industry, agriculture, or retail business, entire local economies devastated by the absence of entrepreneurship, innovation, and capitol investment, all lead eventually to the collapse of the national economy.

If the national economy of Mexico collapses under the weight of government corruption and loss of a significant portion of the labor force, the flood of immigrants to the U.S. will increase five to ten fold at least. They won't be called immigrants or illegal aliens, they will be called refugees. The U.S. is struggling, and failing, to assimilate the 11 million that are here already. We would be overrun by the numbers in the wake of a Mexican economic collapse.

I wouldn't begin to suggest a way to end the corruption in Mexican government but without an end to it, the Mexican economy will remain third-world at best. Desperate people by the millions will continue to stream across the border in search of economic opportunities and wealth only enjoyed by the privileged few in Mexico. With a wealth of natural resources, including oil reserves, favorable crop weather and water supplies, an eager and able work force, tourism and others, there is no reason Mexico to the south, cannot be what Canada is to the north...a prosperous, happy nation of wealth created by vibrant industry and entrepreneurship. It could become an net importer of labor rather than one of the world's largest exporters of labor.

The U.S., on the other hand, is the great welfare state in the sky of which most Mexicans come here to take advantage. We generously give away all manner of social welfare, medical welfare, incarceration welfare, and educational welfare. The current crop of illegal aliens boldly protest in our streets to tell us we should embrace their dependence, provide plentifully for their needs at our own great expense, and acknowledge their entitlement to our wealth, land, and jobs.

It would be national suicide to allow a vast and ever-multiplying population of indignant, non-English-speaking gypsies to remain entrenched among us....refusing to learn English, consuming many times the resources they contribute, and demanding that we make changes to our culture to adapt to theirs.

The very least that should be expected from new arrivals to America is to embrace American culture while contributing aspects of their own culture to it. That is not what we have happening with Mexican illegal immigrants flooding across the border. They are coming in too fast and at too high numbers to adequately assimilate and embrace the American culture.

As I see it, an effective barrier at the border would achieve two very important goals for each country. For Mexico, it would force the Mexican workers to take action against their own government rather than ours. They should be protesting for reform in the streets of Mexico City, not Denver or L.A. Moreover, having no choice but to remain home and fight for economic and political reform would erase the sense of failure and desperation that many Mexicans must feel from having to abandon families to make livings elsewhere.

For the U.S., it would mean a chance to better assimilate the immigrants that are already here. Additionally, there would be a gradual relaxation in demand for social services for which very little if any taxes are paid to fund.

Illegal immigration from Mexico to the U.S. presents each country with different but parallel problems. Whether it's a guest worker program, mass deportation, employer crackdowns, legal immigration moratoria, mandatory English language proficiency, back-payment of owed taxes, denial of social services, repeal of the constitutional provision for territorial birthright, punitive taxation on financial remittances to Mexico, or some combination of the above, it is apparent to even the most casual observer that the flow over the border must be stopped first before any meaningful immigration reforms can be effective.

Build a wall, build a fence, build a something so we can catch our breath and deal logically, reasonably, and fairly with this grave national problem.