Would Calderon agree that where there's a Guatemalan, there is Guatemala?

If how Mexico treats Central American illegal immigrants is any indication, the Mexican president's answer would be a sound "no." I call out Calderon on this treatment -- with a look at the U.S. treatment of illegal immigrants, in light of my recent trip to Puerto Rico -- in my Los Angeles Daily News column today:

"...Migrants from the Dominican Republic, where a quarter of the population is below the poverty line, pay smugglers to take them in small boats called yolas 80 miles across the treacherous Mona Passage to Puerto Rico - where, with 4 million people living on land less spacious than three Rhode Islands, illegal immigration is felt especially acutely.    

The overstuffed yolas face overwhelming currents, and smugglers will toss Dominicans into the sea if the weight in the boat is too much, or leave them on deserted islands to starve. That is, if the migrants survive the sharks teeming below the water's surface.

Fortunate Dominicans are plucked from the yolas by U.S. Coast Guard patrols before they can become shark bait, and, after photos and fingerprinting, are safely repatriated to their home island. On Saturday, the Coast Guard located a 35-foot yola with 31 hungry and dehydrated Dominican migrants after responding to a cell-phone distress call with 20 searches over four days covering 2,400 square miles.

It's a far cry from what happens on Mexico's southern border. While President Felipe Calderon vowed in his state of the nation speech Sunday to mount 'an energetic protest at the unilateral measures taken by the U.S. Congress and government which exacerbate the persecution and abusive treatment of undocumented Mexican workers,' Central American immigrants trying to cross into Mexico face real abuse. If they don't fall prey to criminal gangs on the border, they're subject to shakedowns or worse by notoriously nefarious Mexican authorities. The State Department cites 'credible reports that police, immigration, and customs officials frequently violated the rights of undocumented migrants, including rape.'

Ironically, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, many Mexican landowners claim that they prefer Guatemalans to work the fields because Mexicans won't do the hard work on the banana and coffee plantations. And, making Calderon sound even more like the pot calling the kettle black, Mexican authorities regularly check IDs to locate illegal Central American immigrants and make about 200,000 arrests and deportations each year..."

I guess there isn't a Guatemalan Elvira Arellano to make a stink and boss Calderon around.

Comments

[Carlos Alvarado]

The difference is that Calderon knows that Mexicans leaving Mexico helps the power elite stay in power. The best thing we can hope for is the continued Americanization of Mexico. Maybe the people will eventually learn to stand up for themselves and wrestle control away from the European elite or maybe the time has come for an American expansion to the south.