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Mexican Agenda Comes at the Expense of U.S. Sovereignty
Posted June 13, 2003

By James R. Edwards Jr.
Mexican President Vicente Fox reportedly planned to shoehorn a bid for alien amnesty into a conversation with President George W. Bush at the Group of Eight meeting recently. But Bush should reject any such overtures. Our president must keep foremost in mind that Mexican interests are not American interests. Fox is trying to give Bush a guilt trip because 19 illegal aliens died recently as the willing cargo of a smuggler's tractor-trailer truck. But as sad as that event was, they were in the midst of committing a crime and on the way to willfully committing more. Amnesty of any of the 4 million illegal Mexicans already in the United States - nearly half the illegal-alien population - will only stimulate more illegal immigration.

Furthermore, Mexico - a Third World nation next door to the world's sole remaining superpower - stubbornly refuses to consider common-sense concessions. A Latino mouthpiece in the U.S. Congress, Rep. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), unwittingly proved this when he offered a "sense of the Congress'' resolution in the House International Relations Committee to the State Department authorization bill. His amendment called on the United States to restart amnesty talks with Mexico.

But Menendez lost control of the debate when the committee adopted language offered by Rep. Cass Ballenger (R-N.C.) that any such talks also include opening the state-owned Mexican oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) to U.S. investment. And Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.) successfully amended the Menendez amendment, adding the topic of criminal extradition to any U.S.-Mexican talks agenda.

The Mexican reaction displayed its commitment to socialism and anti-Americanism. Mexico erupted against private U.S. investment in its corrupt oil company, which has been listed among the world's least efficient. One Mexican senator charged "ignorance, arrogance and imperialist vision."

El Universal newspaper editorialized that the Ballenger amendment tried to "impos[e] might over right." The newspaper Excelsior called it "the arrogance of Washington's imperial power." Supposedly pro-market Fox and his cronies assured the Mexican public that "in this government, Pemex will not be privatized nor [sic] sold."

How could a congressional suggestion cause such vituperation? Mexico's mind-set stems from the fact that it celebrates the 1938 government takeover of its oil industry. Socialized oil production is even in Mexico's constitution!

Other differences highlight the chasm separating U.S. and Mexican interests that should stop amnesty talks cold. Mexico opposed the United States at every step in the conflict with Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Mexico opposed the United States at the United Nations, winning the thanks of Iraq's diplomat in Mexico. Its people took to the streets to torch Old Glory.

Mexico's foreign policy toward the United States pursues "Gulliver" diplomacy, to quote its former foreign minister, "tying it up with nails, with thread, with 20,000 nets that bog it down; these nets being norms, principles, resolutions, agreements and bilateral, regional and international covenants."

Mexico's interest in amnesty for its illegal aliens here is purely selfish and financial. Fox supports a global tax on developed nations to redistribute wealth to poor nations. He wants more Mexicans working in the United States - legally or illegally, it makes no difference to him - because they send U.S. dollars back to Mexico. In 2002, expatriate Mexicans sent home a record $9.8 billion, and the $2.74 billion in the first quarter of 2003 outpaced first quarter 2002 remittances by 26 percent.

Mexico is pushing for a raid on America's Social Security fund. It wants an agreement that would make millions of Mexicans who have worked in the United States, including illegal aliens, automatically eligible for billions of dollars in Social Security benefits. That would speed up Social Security's bankruptcy date from 2038.

Mexico discourages assimilation by granting its expatriates dual nationality. Its diplomats lobby state governments to issue driver's licenses to its illegals residing here, to accept its highly insecure matricula consular ID card and to go soft on Mexican criminals.

George Washington warned "[a]gainst the insidious wiles of foreign influence." That's advice every American president should heed. It's especially good advice from one George to another concerning where this nation would end up by being unequally yoked with Mexico.