If you’re a white person driving south of the border, say tijuana or Ensenada areas you are likely to be pulled over by Mexican police and shaken down for money. They’ll make up some charge like speeding (which you weren’t) and demand to know how much money you have on you, (hopefully you have most of your money hidden well). If you don’t have enough money on you then you will be arrested and maybe even beaten up by these bastards. You will be taken to Mexican jail until you can have someone send you enough money to pay these criminals off. All only because you are a white American and they think you are rich.
It all amounts to RACIAL PROFILING by Mexican police thugs who are just out to “legally” rob you just because you’re not a Mexican and therefore are fair game.
I have many friends that this has happened to, and I’ve heard many more stories of this and worse. Anyone you talk to in SOCAL that has been to Mexico will attest to the truth of this.
I’m not saying that we should profile, but the people who decry this law as profiling should at least consider the huge difference in our two countries police.
“Anyone you talk to in SOCAL that has been to Mexico will attest to the truth of this.”
Bollocks. I live in Socal and travel to volunteer at an orphanage in La Mision, halfway between Rosarito and Ensenada. I’ve never even been stopped, much less stopped and shaken down for cash. That’s not to say it doesn’t happen, but to say it’s a common thing to be stopped for no reason, beaten, and thrown into a Mexican prison is ignorant fear-mongering. And it’s no better than the American media shoveling sh!t about how there are decapitated bodies lying all over Mexico and bullets flying faster than the wild west. Go visit Door of Faith orphanage (dofo.org) and you’ll see the REAL Mexico.
(And just to keep it on-topic: politicians like this make me want to move to AZ. Those folks have restored my faith in humanity among legislators.)
Actually it is economic profiling. They will shake down a Mexican citizen also if they think they have money. The Mexican citizen will probably pay less as he knows how "la mordita" works.
I am a white boy that speaks Spanish. My wife is from Mexico but her English is much better than mine. They insist on that when you teach at a University in Texas. We will no longer go to Mexico unless it is by plane to a tourist area where it is safe. Years ago I would travel all over Mexico by car in perfect safety. Occasionally I did pay a little "Mordita." Today I read in the papers about Mexican and American citizens being murdered on the same road I drove in the past.
It has all gone to hell South of the border.
If people even know two or three people this has happened to, why does anyone go to Mexico?