At Harvard University today, Mexican President Felipe Calderon decried the complaints of U.S. citizens about illegal immigration from Mexico:
“The worst thing that happened in this country is this anti-Mexican or anti-immigrant perception of people. We need to contain this,” Calderon said after a speech at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Mr. Calderon’s predecessor, President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, instigated the “most cherished dream” of NAFTA, which is widely believed to be a primary cause of the flood of illegal immigration from Mexico into the United States over the past 10 years.
Mr. Calderon presented a wide-ranging plea to continue this trend.
… Calderon is not meeting with any of the candidates or with President Bush during the trip. He said he will not endorse a candidate but will work with whomever is elected.
Experts believe the latter statement is pretty much a slam-dunk.
NAFTA is not the “primary cause of the flood of illegal immigration from Mexico into the United States over the past 10 years.” The primary cause of illegal immigration is that companies in the US are offering jobs and money to illegal immigrants.
“The primary cause of illegal immigration is that companies in the US are offering jobs and money to illegal immigrants.”
The corollary being there must not be any jobs or money in Mexico, which or course is somehow our fault.
Eric, hate to quibble when we are so close to achieving one of our very rare rapprochements, but the problem with NAFTA is that it has undercut the ability of Mexican farmers to support their families, causing them to need to look elsewhere for subsistence.
How about we agree to “potentially a contributing cause” status.
Eric, drop “potentially” and I’ll declare peace in our time.
Hey, when Calderon returns to Mexico, can he take some illegals with him?
If I had to wager I’d bet the President of Mexico does not want anything to do with the illegals except ensure as many of them as possible make it into the United States and proceed to send money back.
In the photo Felipe looks as if he is praying. I too am praying, praying that Felipe has enough time to swing into Sterling Park, snatch up a few illegals and head on back to Mexico. Depending on the size of his car he could get 4 in the back seat, 2 in the front seat and 4 in the trunk. That is ten illegals! If the total number of illegals is 14 million,our friend Felipe reduced the number of illegals by .000000714 %
That my friends is progress.
Greg,
There is a flaw in your plan. Don’t you understand that wherever there are Mexicans, that is Mexico. Calderon doesn’t have to go home….he IS home! That means that he would be smuggling more illegals INTO the U.S. I wish he were a pied piper. Then he could take the lemmings for a swim to, say, Bermuda.
By all means, let’s continue to complain about all the illegals in our country…but in order to contain our complaints: all the illegals should listen and return to Mexico and or home country.