Mexico Has No Interest in Stopping Migration Into the U.S., Whether It’s Legal or Illegal

Wake up, America. Somehow we got hold of the crazy idea that Mexico was our partner in border security.

I blame Donald Trump. Former president hatch a plan forcing tens of thousands of Central America seek refugee status to “stay in Mexico” while their asylum claims are heard by U.S. immigration courts. Trump needs the cooperation of the President of Mexico Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. He got it.

But, for Mexican government, helping to prevent Central Americans from accessing the United States is one thing. Help keep Mexican immigrants out of the United States is a completely different story.

Diplomats in Mexico and the United States both offered cozy images of the two neighbors working together to repair the fence. But when it comes to fighting illegal immigration into the United States, Mexico is not amigo.

In 2001, the Mexican government – then headed by President Vicente Fox – devised a plan to manufacture and distribute compact survival kits to Mexican migrants crossing the border. Containing everything from salt tablets to bandages to snacks, this kit nicknamed sarcastically by the Mexican press equal cajitas feliz (“Happy Meal”). Derided on both sides of the border, the project was soon halted.

In 2005, the Fox administration print and disseminate a comic book booklet with tips on how to cross the US illegally — and avoid detection when they get there. Dubbed the “Guide to Mexican Immigrants,” the 32-page guide uses color drawings and short phrases. The booklet advises that if you are crossing the desert, do it “when the heat is not too intense”. Given that thousands of Mexican migrants have died illegally crossing the border, Mexican officials claim they are trying to save lives.

But Mexico has another driving force: there are millions of people living and working in the US. It is called dinero. Its an amazing amount.

In a historic twist, remittances sent by Mexican immigrants working in the US (and elsewhere in the world) to family members in Mexico now account for more than any other source of foreign income. nothing else – than tourism, oil revenues and manufacturing exports. Mexico will not dare to refuse.

The country’s central bank — Banco de México—confirmed earlier this month that by 2021, Mexican migrants sent home about $51.6 billion. That’s a 27.1% increase year-over-year. In December 2021, remittances into Mexico totaled about $4.6 billion, an increase of more than 30% compared to the amount that poured into the country in December 2020.

Jose Luis Gonzalez / Reuters

Over the past decade, these remittances – as a percentage of Mexico’s GDP – have nearly doubled. They have grown from 2% of GDP in 2010 to 3.8% in 2020.

Mexico is the world’s third largest recipient of remittances from all over the world, according to the Mexican government. The top two? India and China.

Between 2010 and 2020, the share of Mexican households receiving remittances increased from 3.6% to 5.1%. And not long after it entered her bank account, that money would be spent and spread throughout the Mexican economy.

A Mexican dishwasher in Las Vegas making $400 a week sent a quarter of that money home to his mother in Ciudad Juarez. At current exchange rates, that $100 converts to over 2,000 pesos. The mother pays the rent, buys food, and buys clothes for her young children. Merchants receive that cash then spend it on their needs. Before long, the dishwasher’s dollars to pesos were all over town. Finally, as an added benefit to Mexico, the inflow of money from the United States relieves pressure on the Mexican government to diversify its economy and creates more opportunities for Mexicans while they still in Mexico.

Mind you, all of this economic activity is happening during a global pandemic. In the United States, many Mexicans are “necessary workers”.

Former President George W. Bush was absolutely right when immigrants do “jobs that Americans wouldn’t do.” It has been this way since German immigrants landed in the East Sea in the mid-1770s.

In 2022, however, the list of jobs performed by immigrants, especially Mexican immigrants, continues to grow. You name the gig, and the Mexican gets the job done. And they don’t “work remotely.” Mexicans pick peaches, do construction work, cook for diners, make hotel beds, and help keep millions of American families afloat by giving a hand as housekeepers, gardeners, and nannies. and caregivers of the elderly.

Americans should be grateful that they are well taken care of by the people who do the housework for them. We need a “Mexican Hug Day”. We will throw a large amount fiesta. This tab may be selected by the American Chamber of Commerce.

But instead, many Americans see these hard-working, law-abiding people as “aggressors” stealing “their jobs.” Republicans, at times, sillyly describe the situation as the result of an “open border.”

President Biden’s budget requests for fiscal year 2022 include $90.8 billion for the Department of Homeland Security. There are nearly 20,000 U.S. Border Patrol agents, with plenty of tools at the ready to stop those crossing the border. If all the ships, planes, helicopters, drones, all-terrain vehicles, fences, spotlights, electronic sensors, and tunnel detectors of the United States government formed an open border , then I don’t want to see a closed border.

Let’s get into reality. Americans will never stop arguing about immigration, illegal or otherwise. We can’t even agree on facts, let alone opinions.

But at least we can be clear about one thing. If America’s goal is to stop illegal immigration — and, mind you, what a big “if” as Americans have been addicted to undocumented immigrant workers for over 30 years , especially when Americans don’t feel like working—We’ll need to go it alone.

We cannot trust Mexico as a partner. Our neighbor will never stop Mexican immigrants from entering the United States — legally if possible, but illegal if necessary. No one left a slot machine spewing silver dollars.

Mexico’s final game has finally come into focus. Its goal is not to help the United States solve a problem. Its goal is to constantly find new ways to prevent that problem from being solved.