The Open Borders

Ranan Lurie - Cartoonews International. Best Political Cartoons of the Year - 1996 Edition. Pg 22.

Why the current immigration bill in the Senate is already a loser. It does the same thing as the immigration reform bill that was passed under the Clinton Administration did. It waves a magic wand, in this case the Z-Visa, and turn up to 20 million pumpkins into glass slippers. All it does is push off fixing the problem until sometime in the future while keeping the border open via a lack of adequate barriers.

I bet former President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon of Mexico is all for these open borders. The man his Yale page lauds with: "He pulled the nation out of a financial crisis right at the start of his term and the result was that under his leadership, Mexico experienced its highest five-year period of GDP growth in recent history. At the same time, social programs were allocated an increasing proportion of the federal budget each year, reaching their highest historical share in 2000." back in 1997 warmly supported these open borders at a La Raza soiree in Chicago: "I have proudly affirmed that the Mexican nation extends beyond the territory enclosed by its borders and that Mexican migrants are an important - a very important - part of it."

This free flow north of Mexico's poor&huddled masses brings down wages in the United States, driving down tax bases even as they increase the burden on those tax bases via medical costs and crime to name two. It also acts a pressure relief valve for Mexico, as the Mexican government suppresses riots it encourages the disaffected to move to the United States - after all the US took half of Mexico so why not take it back. So the impetus for Mexico to reform its political and social structure is diluted as the malcontents move north. Which means Mexico remains a corrupt country for longer where officials and military can be bought along with justice.

Then there is the whole problem of how many jihadists have slipped through and are slipping through via coyotes into the United States via this porous border. Until the southern barriers are reinforced along with penalties for hiring illegals, the Z-Visa is a terrible idea.

Better no immigration bill this year or next versus this travesty that repeats the failures of the previous immigration bill.