How Mexico Treats Illegal Aliens

How Mexico Treats Illegal Aliens

by Michelle Malkin


04/28/2010




Mexican President Felipe Calderon has accused Arizona of opening the door "to intolerance, hate, discrimination and abuse in law enforcement." But Arizona has nothing on Mexico when it comes to cracking down on illegal aliens. While open-borders activists decry new enforcement measures signed into law in "Nazi-zona" last week, they remain deaf, dumb or willfully blind to the unapologetically restrictionist policies of our neighbors to the south.



The Arizona law bans sanctuary cities that refuse to enforce immigration laws, stiffens penalties against illegal alien day laborers and their employers, makes it a misdemeanor for immigrants to fail to complete and carry an alien registration document, and allows the police to arrest immigrants unable to show documents proving they are in the U.S. legally.

If those rules constitute the racist, fascist, xenophobic, inhumane regime that the National Council of La Raza, Al Sharpton, Catholic bishops and their grievance-mongering followers claim, then what about these regulations and restrictions imposed on foreigners?

-- The Mexican government will bar foreigners if they upset "the equilibrium of the national demographics." How's that for racial and ethnic profiling?

-- If outsiders do not enhance the country's "economic or national interests" or are "not found to be physically or mentally healthy," they are not welcome. Neither are those who show "contempt against national sovereignty or security." They must not be economic burdens on society and must have clean criminal histories. Those seeking to obtain Mexican citizenship must show a birth certificate, provide a bank statement proving economic independence, pass an exam and prove they can provide their own health care.

-- Illegal entry into the country is equivalent to a felony punishable by two years' imprisonment. Document fraud is subject to fine and imprisonment; so is alien marriage fraud. Evading deportation is a serious crime; illegal re-entry after deportation is punishable by ten years' imprisonment. Foreigners may be kicked out of the country without due process and the endless bites at the litigation apple that illegal aliens are afforded in our country (see, for example, President Obama's illegal alien aunt -- a fugitive from deportation for eight years who is awaiting a second decision on her previously rejected asylum claim).

-- Law enforcement officials at all levels -- by national mandate -- must cooperate to enforce immigration laws, including illegal alien arrests and deportations. The Mexican military is also required to assist in immigration enforcement operations. Native-born Mexicans are empowered to make citizens' arrests of illegal aliens and turn them in to authorities.

-- Ready to show your papers? Mexico's National Catalog of Foreigners tracks all outside tourists and foreign nationals. A National Population Registry tracks and verifies the identity of every member of the population, who must carry a citizens' identity card. Visitors who do not possess proper documents and identification are subject to arrest as illegal aliens.

All of these provisions are enshrined in Mexico's Ley General de Población (General Law of the Population) and were spotlighted in a 2006 research paper published by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Security Policy. There's been no public clamor for "comprehensive immigration reform" in Mexico, however, because pro-illegal alien speech by outsiders is prohibited.

Consider: Open-borders protesters marched freely at the Capitol building in Arizona, comparing GOP Gov. Jan Brewer to Hitler, waving Mexican flags, advocating that demonstrators "Smash the State," and holding signs that proclaimed "No human is illegal" and "We have rights."

But under the Mexican constitution, such political speech by foreigners is banned. Noncitizens cannot "in any way participate in the political affairs of the country." In fact, a plethora of Mexican statutes enacted by its congress limit the participation of foreign nationals and companies in everything from investment, education, mining and civil aviation to electric energy and firearms. Foreigners have severely limited private property and employment rights (if any).

As for abuse, the Mexican government is notorious for its abuse of Central American illegal aliens who attempt to violate Mexico's southern border. The Red Cross has protested rampant Mexican police corruption, intimidation and bribery schemes targeting illegal aliens there for years. Mexico didn't respond by granting mass amnesty to illegal aliens, as it is demanding that we do. It clamped down on its borders even further. In late 2008, the Mexican government launched an aggressive deportation plan to curtain illegal Cuban immigration and human trafficking through Cancun.

Meanwhile, Mexican consular offices in the United States have coordinated with left-wing social justice groups and the Catholic Church leadership to demand a moratorium on all deportations and a freeze on all employment raids across America.

Mexico is doing the job Arizona is now doing -- a job the U.S. government has failed miserably to do: putting its people first. Here's the proper rejoinder to all the hysterical demagogues in Mexico (and their sympathizers here on American soil) now calling for boycotts and invoking Jim Crow laws, apartheid and the Holocaust because Arizona has taken its sovereignty into its own hands:

Hipócritas.

Mexico Blames U.S. for Drug War

Are We Serious Yet?
by Bay Buchanan

Could America finally be getting serious about our southern border?

Recently, Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was in Mexico to offer military assistance in their escalating war against the drug lords. This after several US intelligence reports found that Mexico now presented a worse threat to our national security than Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or Pakistan. And President Obama says he's considering putting troops on the border.

According to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Mexico now appears ready to accept the kind of help they shunned only months ago. Last week on NBC's "Meet The Press" Gates said, " I think we are beginning to be in a position to help the Mexicans more than we have in the past.....I think some of the old biases against cooperation between militaries and so on, I think, are being satisfied."

Let me translate.

President Calderon and his government are down for the count and without a U.S. rescue operation Mexico will soon be a narco-state. One defense official, according to The Washington Times, explained that Mexican President Felipe Calderon was "fighting for the life of Mexico" and the situation could take a turn for the worse in coming months.

The Times reported that the two largest and most violent cartels, the Sinaloa Cartel and "Los Zetas", the enforcement arm of the Gulf Cartel, are negotiating a merger of sorts. Together these vicious rivals have 100,000 heavily-equipped ground troops, a force that would be better armed and nearly as large as the Mexican military. In addition the Sinaloa Cartel has successfully infiltrated most all levels of Mexico's federal government.

Admiral Mullen acknowledged the sense of urgency. After meeting with his Mexican counterparts he told the media he would be expediting the delivery of sophisticated military equipment, including helicopters, to Mexico as part of the three year 1.4 billion dollar initiative approved last November. In addition Mullen spoke of the Pentagon's willingness to provide Mexico with new surveillance and reconnaissance support, such as unmanned drones to spy on armed drug gangs, especially along the US border.

Sophisticated aerial surveillance on the border! This is outstanding news--for Mexico and the U.S. if both countries are serious about stopping the flow of all illegal traffic.
But that's not the case.

Last week President Calderon blamed America for the drug war. The primary cause, he said, was having "the world's biggest consumer' of illegal drugs" as his neighbor. "Drug trafficking in the Untied States," he added, "is fueled by the phenomenon of corruption on the part of the American authorities." (Talk about calling the kettle black!) Here is what he wants done: "I think that weapons and cash cross from there to here, and that both countries should strive to make their borders safe and open to trade and workers, but closed to illegal drugs, weapons, and money trafficking."

There you have it-Mexico wants our border "safe and open to...workers", and, of course, their families and friends. But along side these folks come the gangbangers, the drug runners, the criminals-and the drugs. The openness of our border is precisely why the drug cartels set up shop in Mexico.

Law enforcement officials have told us that cartel thugs disguise themselves by hiding among the migrant communities. It is how they get here; it is how they hide in plain sight and safely operate in our communities. And they are here.

Just last week the Houston Chronicle ran a story titled "Mexican Cartels Infiltrate Houston" while USA Today ran one led: "Mexican Cartels Plague Atlanta". "The same folks who are rolling heads in the streets of Ciudad Juarez are operating in Atlanta", says Jack Killorin, the head of Atlanta Office of National Drug Control Policy's Task Force, "here they are just better behaved."

The only way we have a chance to stop the drug industry from thriving in this country is to stop the illegal invasion.

Calderon is correct that the cartels' sophisticated equipment and the billions in drug money fueling the war originate in the US and travels south across the border. But again the only way to stop its flow is to tighten control of the border. While not a sufficient step it is a necessary one.
So what kind of deal have our bold leaders made with Mexico? We know Calderon would never allow surveillance designed to help him be used to disrupt the flow of illegal aliens he is sending north. If aerial surveillance detects, as it surely will, hordes of illegals making their way north, do we simply hope no drug runners are hiding in their midst?

The question needs to be asked. If the U.S. military's surveillance detects crimes occurring on the border-including illegal entry into our country-will they share the information with our border agents? And will the agents be instructed to apprehend the violators? Put another way: Now that open borders have exposed us to an increasingly grave and imminent national security threat are we ready to secure them?

Don't count on it-it would offend Mexico.