Couldn't agree with you more in this respect. Just one example: The Permian and Delaware basins in New Mexico and Texas, continue well into Mexico. There are thousands of high volume producers in the US and just as many waiting to be drilled in Mexico. That alone could employ many thousands for a number of years.
The coasts could provide work for as many as a few hundred thousand. The minerals of the Rocky Mountains as Sabertooth described: again, many thousands could be employed in that industry as well. I agree, its time to pressure Mexico into accepting modernity and bringing their people along for the ride.