Mayor says immigration keeps Mexico from social unrest

MEXIDATA.INFO ^ | 12/28/2004 | Manuel Durán

[Semaphore Heathcliffe]

Yay. We're a safety valve. Go Bush.

[rodguy911]

The illegal immigration problem is so vast,widespread and so well known that I sometimes wonder if GW isn't doing a rope-a-dope thing with the rats.

Maybe he is waiting for the Hillary/McCain types and the other rats to "demand" that we seal the borders and than sheepishly or slyly say, well, o.k.
It's a possibility.

Meanwhile it sure as hell is infuriating for us.

[struggle]

...civil unrest that PRI helped cause.

[GeronL]

they export their unrest to the US?

[Marauder]

a criminal and unemployment drain for the Mexican society

Not to mention the boost to their economy with the illegals sending money back to las familias back home.

[Kurt_D]

Yes, the very famous remittances...

[txhurl]

No sh*t. 'Give us your poor, tired & hungry' is now 'Give us ALL your poor, tired and hungry but keep their paychecks we give them.'

[FITZ]

the Vincente Fox cabin boy we call a president appears unwilling to let anything get in his way on this issue,

I don't know --- but Lopez Obrador makes far more sense than Vicente Fox ever has --- we're supposed to believe he's a Communist though --- but it seems Mexico needs some reforms very quickly to prevent that. No wonder Lopez Obrador is the front runner for the next presidency.

[rodguy911]

Being president of mexico dictator of russia, Saddaam Hussein, the sheiks of Saudi Arabia or any third world country is a lot like a weigh station. You have to weigh these guys going in and then coming out again.

Right now about 10 billion US in a Swiss bank a/c is the correct going out weight. Fox must not have got there yet.

[FITZ]

So stopping them at the boarder will actually help them in the long run. Why clean your house when you can live at the neighbors.

Yes it will. But the irony is in the second statement --- certain Americans feel they benefit quite a lot personally by having an unlimited source of very cheap desperate servants. Why clean your house when you can import as many low-paid near-slaves as you like -- and have the taxpayers here pay for them?

[John Lenin]

In other words we are propping up the maxist dicatorship known as Mexico. They vote but it doesn't reallly mean anything down there.

[FITZ]

The irony about the last Mexican Revolution --- the Indian President (Porfirio Diaz) was booted out of power --- Pancho Villa and Emilio Zapata were quickly murdered when the new elites took power --- didn't find those two very useful anymore --- and Mexico hasn't had an Indian president since. Maybe they need a revolution now to undo what the last one did.

[JustAnotherSavage]

"López Obrador said that the only explanation for people in Mexico not having protested in light of more than 20 years of economic stagnation is because escape valves, such as immigration, have been found. "

"On one hand the pressure is removed with regard to zero economic growth, and on the other those who are in the U.S. send about US$17 billion to Mexico annually. "

Well, isn't that special?!! According the VISA, the illegals are sending about $38 billion a year back to Mexico...after drugs that would be their biggest source of revenue.

America, we are being HAD, and by a 3rd world oligarchy. After the illegals start getting our SS retirement and disability, that should keep them quiet for a few years longer.

MEXICO needs a revolution! Oh....the revolters aren't in Mexico any more, they are here demanding rights...

Ref:

LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT : Visa, it's everywhere you want to be, and in some places, you may not expect it to be. Visa International is targeting migrant and other workers from Latin America as its new favorite customer. The company is marketing its smart card that works as a prepaid debit card. Workers in the United States can easily transfer money to relatives abroad at a low cost. The banking industry hopes to tap into the remittance payment market that has been growing at an astronomical pace.

MANUEL OROZCO, INTER-AMERICAN DIALOGUE: In 2001, it is total volume of remittances to Latin American was $18 billion, and it grew to $38 billion three years later.

SYLVESTER: Wire services, including Western Union and Moneygram so far have dominated the $38 billion money-transfer market. A recent study found that 86 percent of remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean were cash transfers, 4 percent home delivery, 4 percent bank or credit union deposit, and 1 percent debit or smart card. Not everyone agrees that banking institutions make it easier to send money out of the country. Critics say nearly $40 billion a year exiting the United States is not small change, and leaves less money for some of the poorest U.S. communities. And there's also a potential security risk.

MARK KRIKORIAN, CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES: Immigrant remittances are one of the ways bad guys can transfer money across borders because even though most of that money is completely innocent, people working jobs and sending money home, it can serve as cover for terrorists, other kinds of criminals to move money.

SYLVESTER: But Visa and other credit card companies are charging forward, reaching into one of the few untapped markets.


SYLVESTER: The banking industry is convinced it can capture more of the market because its costs tend to be lower than traditional wire transfers. The bank costs as little as $8 a transfer, using the smart cards, and on the other hand, wire services can cost up to $25 a transfer. Kitty?

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0412/28/ldt.01.html

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Mexico has more "Forbes" billionaires, 11, than all but eight other nations. It has more billionaires than Saudi Arabia, Switzerland or Taiwan. It also has more than 85,000 millionaires.

Aired 12/16/04 On CNN

DOBBS: Tonight, an estimated 15 million illegal aliens live in this country, at least half of them from Mexico. Many are here because they chose to flee crushing poverty in Mexico.

But, in point of fact, Mexico is one of the richest countries in Latin America, amongst -- the millionaires, billionaires and its wealth concentrated in the hands of very few.

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They sneak across the border seeking jobs they can't find in Mexico. The question isn't why they come, it's why can't Mexico's economy support its own people.

Nearly half of Mexico's population lives in poverty. Ten percent are indigent, existing on a dollar a day. Yet the nation has vast wealth. Mexico has more "Forbes" billionaires, 11, than all but eight other nations. It has more billionaires than Saudi Arabia, Switzerland or Taiwan. It also has more than 85,000 millionaires.

GEORGE W. GRAYSON, COLLEGE OF WILLIAM & MARY: There is a small economic elite who live like maharajas, and there's a political elite that protects them. Our border provides an escape valve which really lets the Mexican political and economic elite off the hook in terms of providing opportunities for their own people.

WIAN (on camera): About 10 percent of Mexico's 105 million people live here in the United States. They're called national heroes by President Vicente Fox because this year they'll send home about $16 billion, more than any Mexican industry except oil.

(voice-over): The country sits on oil reserves worth about $400 billion, but Mexico's state-owned oil company, Pemex, doesn't have the investment funds to tap those reserves, and Mexico's Congress refuses to allow foreign investment in Pemex.

Mexico's outdated tax system is plagued by widespread tax evasion. It collects taxes at less than half the rate of the United States. As a result, Mexico's public-school and health-care systems suffer. CHRIS WOODRUFF, CENTER FOR U.S.-MEXICO STUDIES: We now realize -- and particularly in a world where capitalists are mobile -- that redistribution isn't going to work, and what people focus on now instead is allowing the poor to build assets. Mexico has undertaken some programs which will allow the poor to do that. But that's not a process that changes overnight.

WIAN: Meanwhile, the gap between rich and poor is growing. So Mexico continues to export one of its most valuable assets, people.

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ONE ILLEGAL COULD COST U.S. TAXPAYERS ONE-HALF MILLION BUCKS

"If a 24-year-old Mexican national who has worked illegally in the U.S. for three years is able to present documents from a friendly doctor and either a W-2 or pay stubs that indicate $12,000 in annual earnings, he will be eligible for the following: nearly $8,000 per year in disability income (adjusted for inflation), until age 65, at which point he would receive the same amount as retirement pay. (If he manages to get an under-the-table job in the U.S. or Mexico, he will be able to double-dip for a second income stream.) If he is survived by his wife or dependents, his family would be able to receive up to almost $12,000 annually. If he dies at 60, and his widow lives to 85, U.S. taxpayers will be on the hook for nearly a half-million dollars. That’s for one worker brought into Social Security by the pact." Source: Joel Mowbray, National Review, 1/27/03, pp. 22, 24


162,000 MEXICAN BENEFICIARIES?

" ‘We are concerned about the sheer magnitude of the agreement,’ said a House Republican aide who is an expert on Social Security. About 94,000 beneficiaries living abroad have been brought into the system by the 20 existing international agreements. A Mexican agreement alone could bring in 162,000 in the first five years." Source: Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post, 12/19/02, p. A1

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http://www.google.com/search?as_q=aliens&num=100&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=social+security&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&safe=off

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http://www.townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/mm20040107.shtml

The criminal raid on Social Security
Michelle Malkin
January 7, 2004

My 8-week-old son's Social Security card recently arrived in the mail. On the back, there's a stern warning: "Improper use of this card or number by anyone is punishable by fine, imprisonment or both."

Welcome to the world of government theft and selective enforcement, my boy.

While innocent babes who have yet to earn a penny are threatened with jail time for misusing Social Security cards, the Bush administration appears set this week to turn the ailing government pension program into an international relief fund for illegal alien workers who used counterfeit Social Security cards and stolen numbers to secure illegal jobs. ---snip

[rpgdfmx]

Interesting to see the Freepers, the Roman Catholic Primate of Mexico and the head of the leftist PRD (Andres Manual Lopez Obrador) all in agreement. What's weirder is finding myself and the cankankerous Fred Reed (fredoneverything.net) also in agreement.

The people who go north are those without prospects at home... people without the skills or education to compete with the Mexican middle-class (why people think Mexico is "socialist" is beyond me... Mexicans are geniuses when it comes to thinking up "niche-market" opportunities. My next-door neighbor here in Mexico City sells doughnuts outside nightclubs at night. He don't need no stinkin' permits!). The "illegals" are overwhelmingly poor farmers who can't compete against the U.S. and Canadian agricultural system... which is heavily subsidized and corporate. It's the FREE MARKET Mexican system that's created the problem.

I expect the U.S. will coverty (and maybe already is) try to keep AMLO and the PRD from the presidency in 2006. Fox's party is comitted to "neo-libreralismo" ... what in the U.S. is basically Ronald Reagan economic thinking. Frankly, the choices for the U.S. are more "illegal immigration" or a capitalist Mexico administed by Socialists. I think the latter is better for both countries. The U.S. will have to put up with some more uncomfortable rhetoric from the Mexican government ("sticks and stones...") and some commodity prices will go up, as they will in Mexico, but if Mexicans are working and can send their kids to school, they'll stay home.

[JustAnotherSavage]

See post 33
Thanks!

[FITZ]

The people who go north are those without prospects at home...

They have no prospects at home because they aren't allowed to have them. Not all --- because Mexico is doing some big people-dumping --- but many do just fine when given half a chance. Many of those hated Indians and Mestisos are far more clever than Mexico's elite and middle classes are --- far quicker at figuring things out --- but that's the result of a social system that ensures that all good jobs can only be had by connections.

[FITZ]

Mexico has more "Forbes" billionaires, 11, than all but eight other nations. It has more billionaires than Saudi Arabia, Switzerland or Taiwan. It also has more than 85,000 millionaires.

That bears repeating. Mexico is an exceedingly wealthy country which has a terribly injust system of government and culture which denies all access to it's wealth to 80% of it's citizens. It's long overdue for a revolution --- which it could prevent by making some of the long-needed changes quickly --- but that's not likely --- not with Fox in power.

[sweetliberty]

But I guess it's okay if their illegals cause social unrest in the US.

[JustAnotherSavage]

I agree.


Mexico has more "Forbes" billionaires, 11, than all but eight other nations. It has more billionaires than Saudi Arabia, Switzerland or Taiwan. It also has more than 85,000 millionaires.

[FITZ]

It's the FREE MARKET Mexican system that's created the problem.

It's not very free though. If you're born into the under-class of Mexico, that's where they expect you to stay. If your father was a simple bus driver and you have the brains to become a physician --- you'd better plan on coming to the USA --- and we see a whole lot of that --- which benefits us but actually harms Mexico because it's a brain drain. It's not just the poverty stricken that are coming over in droves --- the middle class is also leaving Mexico in droves. Many Mexicans here from the middle class will be the first ones to tell you that you can't get ahead in Mexico unless you're corrupt --- honesty and hard work won't get you anywhere over there.