Seeking Life In America

When I first looked at this drawing on Facebook my mind went to the US/Mexico border. As I read through the comments, I saw that many agreed with me, while some saw Israel and Palestine, and a few saw it as South Africa, even though there is no wall.

Why would the leftist artist drawing this see Mexico as a slum area? We know Mexico has areas like Acapulco where people from all over the world vacation. We know cities like Mexico City look like most large cities around the world.

We're told everyday that people sneak into the USA to find a better way of life. What's wrong with life in Mexico? In 2016 Mexico had an unemployment rate less than 4%. That should indicate the country is thriving, especially when we look at the number of US factories that move, daily, to Mexico. In Mexico they have free healthcare, so that shouldn't be a reason to flee the country.

Why is America so great that everyone wants to come? We surely don't have free healthcare. We have a pretty low unemployment rate ourselves, yet many say they come for the jobs. The capitalist system is one reason people seek out the United States. But there is one huge reason Mexicans and others seek out this nation. There is something in this country—something that is missing in Mexico and many other countries.

Rule of law is America's greatest asset. Yes, this country has it's problems, but over all we have a legal system that surpasses those of other countries. In Mexico there are regions that aren't really part of the country because they are ruled by drug cartels. Corruption is institutional in the country. Too often, foreigners visiting Mexico are kidnapped and held for ransom. Yes, many visit Mexico without difficulty, but not always.

When visiting tourists areas like Acapulco, tourists are warned not to wander too far from the resort areas. The 2013 poverty rate in Mexico was nearly 50%. Anytime that many people live in poverty, there will be a lot of crime.

I was good friends with our company's Panamanian, Spanish translator. She had discovered that many of the new employees from Mexico could barely read and write. Several times I had one of those employees ask me what a new sign said—the sign was written in Spanish and English.

I have a friend who often traveled to Mexico to teach employees how to fix and operate machinery. These manufacturing plants were lined up close to the US border. My friend's biggest surprise when visiting those plants were the guard towers and fences surrounding the plant. In the guard towers you could see men armed with automatic weapons.

The USA has a problem with MS-13 gangs around the country. Those gangs originated in El Salvador. They have entered the USA, both legally and illegally. The same crime that has kept so many people in poverty in many Latin countries is coming to America.

Those promoting open borders or lax immigration policies are opening the door for more crime. If you want to help the people of Mexico, you should go there and help solve the problems that creates poverty. There is a reason people aren't trying to escape the USA, and that reason is because we have rule of law.

Each day there are refugees lined up from around the world to enter the USA. They are fleeing their countries because they're a mess. They are fleeing the mess they helped create. The problems in those countries can never be solved as long as they run in fear. Until they decide to stand up politically and physically, those countries will never changed.

Mexico, being on the border of the USA, has the greatest economic opportunity in the world, and yet they don't take advantage of that position. The government seems to encourage people to come to the USA, both legally and illegally. Part of that reason is money. Billions of dollars are sent back to Mexico each year by immigrants. US dollars are one of Mexico's largest imports. Mexico is happy to trade its citizens for US dollars. It could almost be said they're selling their citizens.

The USA is building a wall on the Mexican border for a good reason, to control who and what enters the USA. Every country in the world monitors and controls who enters their country. We also know the Democratic Party encourages people to enter this country legally and illegally because they know most of those people will be voting for their candidates.

It might be time to suspend all immigration for a couple of years because if it continues at this rate, the country we know will be lost. The USA might not be so different from the ones they're fleeing.

Update 11/24/17:

A few days after writing this I stumbled on the NPR article, Why Child Marriage Persists In Mexico. I had discussed how poverty was one reason people sought life in America. We, now, learn one of many reasons for that poverty are child brides. Up to one quarter of all marriages in Mexico involve girls under 18 and too often as young as 11 years of age.

The NPR article attempts to whitewash the fact there are so many child marriages in Mexico. The reason is simple—child marriages are common in 3^rd world countries. This is all part of the culture of corruption in Mexico. This is just one more reason to limit or pause immigration from Mexico. The USA doesn't have the time or the resources to solve all of Mexico's problems. Our government needs to push Mexico to solve its own problems and stop sending them to the USA. You can be sure Mexico isn't sending its best and brightest to the USA.

Since the first writing, a border guard was attacked and killed at the border. This confirms the drug cartels are operating outside of Mexico. The leftist media is trying to tell people it was an accident, while the FBI states that it was a planned attack.