Mexico has benefited from being next to the United States, but that is coming to an end. Mexico has never had to invest in a real military, or worry about economic development to provide jobs for their people. That has left billions of dollars floating around for any politician to reach in and grab handfuls at will.
Now, Mexico’s leaders are facing a real challenge. As our new administration starts to construct a southern border wall to stop millions of border jumpers trying to make a living to support their families. For the first time, Mexican officials will have to concentrate on the economy and creating jobs at home. No loner will they be able to skim millions off money transfers sent home to support families left behind.
The roundup of illegals in the United States means that Mexico is faced with the logistics and costs of providing food and shelter for millions of it’s citizens and other deportees when they are tossed out of the U.S. Mexican officials fear deportee camps could be popping up along their northern border almost as soon as the Trump administration’s plan to start deporting of all Latin Americans and others who illegally crossed the border.
That will open a Pandora’s Box of problems for Mexican officials. Previously U.S. policy required that Mexican citizens to be sent to Mexico. Illegals known as “OTMs,” Other Than Mexicans, got flown back to their homelands. But under the rewrite of enforcement policies announced Tuesday by the DHS, illegals might be dumped over the border into a violence-plagued area where they have no ties. Waiting for their asylum claims to be heard in the United States. U.S. officials didn’t say what Mexico would be expected to do with them. After all, it’s not our problem.
All that is certain is that Mexico isn’t prepared.“Not in any way, shape or form,” said the Rev. Patrick Murphy, a priest who runs the Casa del Migrante shelter in Tijuana. Officials quake at the thought of handling hundreds of thousands of foreigners in a region struggling with drug gang violence. Sorting out legitimate citizens from other illegals and issuing them the proper ID’s is daunting. Especially since unlike the U.S., Mexico requires all citizens have a government issued ID card. It’s unclear whether the United States has the authority to force Mexico to accept third-country nationals. “I hope Mexico has the courage to say no to this,” Rev. Murphy said.
The director of Tijuana’s Binational Center for Human Rights, said Mexico can simply refuse to accept non-Mexican deportees. Mexico’s government didn’t formally react to the DHS policy statements. But Mexico’s new ambassador to the United States, Geronimo Gutierrez, said, “Obviously, they are a cause for concern for the foreign relations department, for the Mexican government, and for all Mexicans.”
There are precedents in Mexico for refugee camps. In the 1980s and 1990s, Mexico took in about 46,000 Guatemalans fleeing civil war. When peace accords were signed in Guatemala in the mid-1990s, 43,000 refugees and their children went home, but more than 30,000 Guatemalans and their children born in Mexico stayed.
Who knows, maybe the “Great Wall of Trump” will be just what is needed for Mexico to finally develop an honest government that takes care of it’s people after over 600 years of rule by foreign powers, thieves, crooks and despots. Maybe the Mexican people can force real change on their government instead of running North in an attempt to make a better life.