Once again Mexican President Felipe Calderón has spoken out against U.S. immigration laws. Only this time he did it while he was in this country, a guest of our government.
In a joint session of Congress this morning, he criticized and called for comprehensive reform of our immigration laws. He also called Arizona’s new immigration law “racial profiling.”
Speaking through a translator yesterday, he called for “a border that will unite us instead of divide us,” and noted that Mexicans are “still living here in the shadows.” He said the Arizona law “is forcing our people to face discrimination.” And at yesterday’s press conference he said, “We will retain our firm rejection of criminalizing migration.”
You know what, Mr. Calderón? If your citizens — you know, the ones who come here illegally — are feeling discriminated against because we dare to have and enforce immigration laws, maybe they should just stay in Mexico. And by the way, a border — our border — is not meant to unite. Its purpose is to divide, distinguish, and separate. Just so you know.
Mr. Calderón, in the last year you’ve repeatedly criticized our laws because they “impede migration.” Our laws and our borders do indeed impede migration. They are meant to. Your citizens have no inherent or legal right to simply “migrate” into this country whenever they wish. They have no inherent right to stay here illegally, free of scrutiny, above the law. They are here illegally, Mr. Calderón. And however much you may wish our border did not exist, it is not going away. And neither are our laws. Sorry you find them so inconvenient.
Mr. Calderón, don’t come here as our guest and presume to criticize our laws and how we enforce them. It’s rude, unseemly, and unstatesmanlike. Don’t ever mistake our good manners for concession or weakness.
If I were in charge in Mexico, I’d be trying to find ways to get people to stay there rather than making it easier for them to leave.
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I almost accused him of actually encouraging his people to emigrate to the U.S., remembering that brochure the Mexican government produced a few years back with instructions about how to cross the river, survive in the desert, avoid our patrols, etc. But damn, that was before he took office.