Posted on 06/19/2002 5:19:35 AM PDT by skeptic1801
Mexico, U.S. must cross divide By MARY SANCHEZ The Kansas City Star
TIJUANA, Mexico - Mothers clutch infants to their breasts and tug toddlers by the hand as they scurry through the long lines of stalled cars and trucks.
It is a dash of humanity at one of the busiest points on the United States/Mexican border. The women dart between cars, hurrying ahead of immigration officials, usually Mexican ones who give chase on bicycles. It is a race to see who can first cross the yellow-dotted line that is the border separating San Diego from Tijuana.
The women are heading south. They are going into Mexico this day. They made the northbound trip another day, likely to find work in the United States.
The people in the cars are traveling legally by going through official border checkpoints. Some have shopped in Mexico. Others did their buying on the U.S. side and are returning home. Some work on one side of the line and live on the other.
At this point on the border, the symbiotic relationship that defines the two countries is readily apparent. It makes it all the more obvious that it's time more Americans accepted the true nature of the Mexico/U.S. interdependent relationship. We are two countries connected. Always have been, always will be.
Who is the parasite or host is a matter of perspective. Some Mexicans believe one thing, some Americans another. Government policies in both countries, particularly those pertaining to official business relationships, sometimes exacerbate or mitigate the situation.
But people have always migrated back and forth, legally and illegally.
Some of the foot traffic began with the days of the Santa Fe Trail. Remember, portions of present day California, Texas, Colorado and Kansas were once Mexican land. More recently, the North American Free Trade Agreement has increased goods traveling both directions.
Often a Mexican father or other male family member immigrates first to the United States, establishing some roots before other relatives join him. Some will stay; others return to their homeland. What differentiates Mexican migration from the Europeans is this back-and-forth population flow. The Europeans came, sent for their families and stayed.
The Mexican economy gets a boost when citizens working in the United States send wages home. Americans, even those who are rightly concerned about large undocumented populations, enjoy buying fruit, vegetables and other items cheap. Wages for undocumented or migrant workers are kept low, in part because the work force is undereducated or fearful of deportation. American factories, many set up inside Mexico, provide cheaper labor for businesses.
Mexico's President Vicente Fox addressed the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, whose annual meeting was in San Diego. Journalists crossed the border to meet with Fox in Tijuana, where the president spoke wisely of creating a shared vision for the future of both countries.
Fox spoke of this migration flow in terms of "human capital." He noted the U.S. baby-boomer population is retiring and needs workers to provide services. Mexicans, a population that's younger by comparison, needs jobs.
However, Fox also conceded that the situation cannot be as one-sided as it is now. Mexico must develop economically so as to provide more jobs for Mexicans in Mexico.
But Fox is right to call for legalization in the United States of an estimated 3 million to 5 million Mexicans now living and working in the United States, as well as expanding the number of temporary visas.
Much of the discussion between both countries was tabled due to post-Sept. 11 security concerns and the war in Afghanistan.
Even so, Fox said that the United States and Mexico, which share a 2,000-mile border, can be partners in keeping terrorists out of the United States. That's true.
Fox said he doubted the two countries will make any large agreements this year. But serious talks have to resume.
People and goods continue to cross the border in both directions, just as they always have. The governments of Mexico and the United States need to do a better job of directing this long-existing traffic, to the benefit of both countries.
How about we make it like the race across No-Man's-Land at the Somme ...
... into the teeth of massed machinegun fire.
Pure liberal BS. As Americans rebel against their agenda, more junk like this will appear in our papers and on TV until the chorus of whinning liberals is too loud to ignore. Finally, the American public that opposses illegal aliens and amnesty for the 15 million that reside north of the border will be vitually shamed for having an opinion counter to that of the politically oorrect left.
I swear, they act like they deserve to jump the fence and catch a free ride on America's back.. till of course it withers and then, hey! There's always Canada!
What sucks is that as this swarm of locusts leaves us and moves on to a fresh host, we are the ones who will be left picking up the pieces. They will be long gone.
You can call it whatever you want too but it still boils down to ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION!!
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