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"This could very well start a civil war and a flood of illegals like we have never seen before."

While I don't think a "civil war" is really that close, because I think this problem will be contained within the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, there are other implications to this controversy that do not bode well for the immigration problem.

One of the things I have noticed recently is that Felipe Calderon is not talking about the campaign agenda he ran on, which was somewhat controversial in Mexico. Calderon put big some reform issues; such as bringing foreign investment into Mexico's petroleum industry, putting the national electrical monopoly on a more efficient footing, and a wide variety of banking reforms which, taken together, were NOT designed to appeal to the broadest cross-section of Mexican voters, but were instead intended to unify the center and right in Mexico behind his candidacy during the campaign and to promote real economic growth once in office. But now that he has been declared the winner, he faces an unanticipated and very dangerous problem -- legitimacy. In his recent speeches Calderon is stepping away from the more controversial aspects of his campaign platform -- and those are the reforms Mexico really needs -- so that he can develop a domestic consensus in support of his presidency. It's a situation in which politics trumps policy or, to put it another way, the realm of the possible in Mexican politics is limited due to the leftists promoting the "ingovernability" of the country.

What we have always needed as part of the solution to the immigration problem is the development of real economic opportunities in Mexico. And, in spite of what so many who deride Mexico say to the contrary, the building blocks are all there. But they must implement some of the more necessary reforms to boost their growth rate and the tone of national debate as it exists now is such that there is no chance to do anything constructive. Everyone has to stop to keep the whole thing from falling apart.

With all of this in mind, I do not see the prospects for an improvement in the problem of illegal immigration as nearly so bright as they would have been had Calderon won a convincing victory. The Left in Mexico is determined to immiserate the entire country in a temper tantrum over their loss. They will not get the power they hope to acquire, but they may effectively kill the prospects for reform which held such promise for Mexico's future just a few months back. That is sad, but it's reality.

We are going to have to build the fence and strengthen domestic enforcement on this side of the border. We have no other choice in my opinion.