prior to the 1980s
There were Mexican government efforts to
- attract and remind permanent U.S. residents of their Mexican heritage
- along with programs providing temporary workers for the U.S.
But nothing in the former like today.
1980s Legal immigration
Under President Salinas
- Mexican political parties undertook to bond with U.S. citizens of Mexican descent and
- Mexico re-established Mexican citizenship for the Americans;
- Mexico's dual citizenship advocates sought to augment votes.
Mexico's
- web of multitudinous consulates and
- Mexico's new program for Mexican communities abroad (Program for Mexican Communities Abroad, PCME)
became very active in the U.S.
By 1990 Mexican policy had
- accepted their citizens' permanent settlement in the U.S.,
- sought to reinforce its emigrants' homeland ties and,
- encourage their organizational development in the U.S.
1990s legal immigration
Mexico wanted Mexican-Americans to
- help defend Mexican interests in the United States;
President Ernesto Zedillo (1990s) spoke to Mexican-American politicians telling them
- "You're Mexicans -- Mexicans who live north of the border" and
- urged them to help create an ethnic lobby with political influence similar to that of American Jews;
- as Mexican-Americans become more powerful they were to defend and
- advocate Mexican interests in the United States.
1980s and Beyond Illegal immigration
The Immigration Control and Reform Act (IRCA) in 1986
- gave amnesty to almost three million mostly Mexican undocumented aliens;
- these millions became the "basis for a new era in Mexico’s relations with its diaspora"
- including a network of Mexican activist organizations in the United States.
Mexican Policy & Émigré Communities in the U.S.
And then there is the emergence of hometown philanthropic clubs that send multi-billions of dollars to Mexican communities saving all levels of the corrupt Mexican government from having to depart with a peso to help its citizens. A better term is
- "hometown associations";
- HTAs have been around a long time;
- some of the most famous HTAs were the German Nazi HTAs.
Meanwhile if that money remained in the hands of the ILLEGAL aliens (undocumented workers) would they need taxpayer support for food, housing, healthcare, education, and all other transfer payments that states and communities provide them?
IMO it's the way the corrupt government of Mexico "taxes" its citizens in its "Nation without borders."
So yes, undocumented workers do pay taxes.
More at these FR threads: Federations give Mexicans voices and Immigrant Mexican philanthropic groups turn toward politics
On to Prop 187 and today..
Today's anti-U.S., anti-Trump rancor is exactly like the National Republican-Democrat coalition against California Prop 187 voters.
- Prop 187 passed 59 - 41 percent;
- the courts went to work for the National Republican-Democrat coalition and
- cancelled the 59-percent;
- Democrat Gov. Gray Davis killed off the 59-percent by refusing to pursue his -- as I understand it -- obligation of doing "for the people."
More from the study..
The Mexican government weighed in during the campaign for Prop 187 with Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari asserting that
- "Mexico affirms rejection of this xenophobic campaign, and
- will continue to act in defense of the labor and human rights of our migrant workers."
(Salinas knew that Mexico did not have the means to use economic sanctions against the US or California to protest the approval of Prop. 187.)
Ernesto Zedillo, who followed Salinas as Mexico's President eagerly weighed in and
- asserted during his November trip to Washington, DC that
- Mexico 'cannot object to legitimate enforcement of US laws,' but
- Mexico objects to 'enforcement [that] might lead to deprivation or violation of basic human rights.... [including] education and health care;'
- the Mexican government promised to contribute attorneys and funds to fight Proposition 187 in US courts.
Before leaving office President Salinas suggested a guestworker program and Governor Wilson announced his support for a program to import Mexican guestworkers.
But the incoming Zedillo Administration knew that
- Mexico could not afford to close the wide open "safety valve" on which several million of its citizens depend;
- Mexico [saw] no significant lessening of emigration pressures during the 1990s
- [IOW: Mexico needed to continue unloading millions of its citizens onto the U.S.]
The return of a guestworker program had little chance.
The 1994 Prop 187 passage got immediate action..
Leaders of several Central American countries [told] President Clinton that their economies must grow faster in order to stem the flow of illegal immigrants to the north. Central American leaders [began] an intensive lobbying effort to prevent the return of their citizens after the passage of Prop. 187 and the threat of not renewing temporary protected status for El Salvadorans.
Passage of Prop 187 was met with instant appeals. But it took years to get the initial federal court to act on the appeals.
In Nov. 1997: "Proposition 187, as drafted, is not constitutional on its face," Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer declared.
A year later Gray Davis was elected and IIRC one of his first acts was to fly off to Mexico City and later let it be clear that he would NOT appeal Pfaelzer's decision. Gov. Wilson was committed to appeal all the way to SCOTUS. Is that why Pfaelzer took so long. IIRC the Wilson administration pressured her to act and filed an appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Governor Davis worked out some kind of deal that killed Prop 187 and dropped the court actions.
The 21st Century. Bush and Fox.
President George W. Bush and Mexican President Fox were close personal friends.
- Both made conferring legal status on Fox's undocumented compatriots in the United States a top priority;
- Fox toured America with the demand that
- "Mexicans who work in the United States should be considered legal.
- They shouldn't have to hide in the shadows."
However there was a plan for guest workers but before there could be a guest worker agreement Mexico officials specified that
- there had to be regularization,
- a concept that Foreign Minister Jorge G. Castañeda says must allow Mexican immigrants to
- obtain driver's licenses,
- Social Security cards and
- resident tuition at colleges.
- Mexican officials knew better than to say amnesty.
- a concept that Foreign Minister Jorge G. Castañeda says must allow Mexican immigrants to
Castañeda imposed the requirement that
- any comprehensive agreement on border safety and
- guest workers must
- include regularization for illegal workers.
- "It's the whole enchilada, or nothing," Mr. Castañeda said.
It was pretty much on track to become law no matter what Americans thought but we were attacked by yet another enemy on 9/11 2001. From various sources including including this 2002 FR thread
By the second Bush Administration and the Obama Administrations there have been the guffawing goofballs' thinking that their "reform" would fool Americans enough for them to pass and Bush/Obama to sign.
So the Administration, the courts, the legislative branch saying "F-you Americans!" is nothing new..
the autoimmune disease of the body politic appeared decades ago.. it's just been found to be caused by unstable radicals occupying buildings on the Beltway campus and something called crony capitalism.
Now on the cure to save the life of the United States of America.