Mexican re-occupation of the Southwest?

Since 04-12-06

By YEH LING-LING
The Providence Journal
07-APR-06
http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=SOUTHWEST-04-07-06

OAKLAND, Calif. -- President Bush and the congressional leaders of both parties are determined to achieve de-facto amnesty in 2006 for possibly over 12 million illegal migrants.

Since more than half of the illegal migrants come from Mexico, and because the Mexican government has encouraged illegal migration, Americans should not ignore the impact of continued mass Mexican immigration on our national unity.

In 1995, Henry Cisneros, then U.S. secretary of housing and urban development, declared at a Hispanic conference at the University of California at Riverside, "(A)s the Latino population goes, so goes the state of California, and as goes the state of California, so goes the United States of America. My friends, the stakes are big. This is a fight worth making."

In 1997, Ernest Zedillo, then president of Mexico, declared in Chicago, "(T)he Mexican nation extends beyond the territory enclosed by its borders and ... Mexican migrants are an important _ a very important _ part of it."

In 2004, Mexican President Vicente Fox said in Chicago, "We are Mexicans that live in our territories and we are Mexicans that live in other territories. In reality, we are 120 million people that live together and are working together to construct a nation."

In 2004, the Mexican government published safety tips for Mexicans who wanted to illegally cross the U.S. border. In recent years, Mexico has been pushing hard for U.S. amnesty and various benefits for millions of illegal Mexican migrants.

It has also fought measures to secure our borders, such as the proposed border wall. If naturalized, millions of amnestied migrants could add tens of millions of people (and many future voters) to the United States, through births here and through immigration of extended families. Children born in the United States, even of guest workers, are American citizens and can vote at 18.

Our last national elections were very close. What would be the impact of such an amnesty on future elections? Although many Mexican-Americans are patriotic and most Mexican migrants have no political agenda, many newcomers could be mobilized by Mexico to vote according to Mexico's interests.

U.S.-born Juan Hernandez, while serving as a member of President Fox's cabinet, stated, "We are betting that the Mexican-American population in the United States ... will think Mexico first." Indeed, last Saturday more than 500,000 demonstrators marched in Los Angeles, and tens of thousands did so in Denver, Phoenix and other places in the United States. Many of the protesters were waving Mexican flags. Their positions on immigration are identical to Mexico's:

They oppose U.S. legislation to secure our borders (HR 4437) and they demand amnesty (unlimited guest-worker visas and citizenship for millions of illegal migrants).

According to the 2000 Census, the U.S. population had increased by about 13 percent since 1990, but those who identified themselves as Mexican had increased by 53 percent. If this trend continues, within just a few decades the majority of people in the United States could very well be of Mexican descent. Is Mexico using both legal and illegal migration to influence U.S. policies and to extend the Mexican nation?

Congress should remember the following: The United States has tens of millions of low-skilled unemployed and underemployed legal residents, including Hurricane Katrina victims and welfare recipients. They should work in jobs currently held by illegal aliens. Extending welfare or unemployment benefits are not long-term solutions. If the United States keeps massively exporting jobs and importing workers, American job seekers will have great difficulty finding work.

President Bush and Congress must not repeat the mistake of 1986 that amnestied 3 million illegal aliens. (Measures in that legislation to curb illegal immigration have been mostly ignored.) Because legalization and other benefits have been granted to illegal aliens, their numbers in the United States have at least quadrupled!

If the United States wishes Americans to be law-abiding, it should seriously enforce existing immigration laws and adopt new legislation to make it illegal to grant benefits to illegal aliens across the board. Most illegal migrants would leave if they could not survive economically.

The United States needs to start by seriously securing our borders. Our immigration policy should be set according to our national interests, not dictated by any foreign nation.

(Yeh Ling-Ling is executive director of the Diversity Alliance for a Sustainable America, in Oakland, Calif. She can be reached at (510) 835-5017.)