The Mexico Problem

Lately, there has been a lot of talk on Capitol Hill about immigration reform. Bills have been submitted in the House and Senate that would improve border security, make it easier to immigrate legally, and nominate English as the preferred language. Unfortunately, it is highly likely that any legislation that is passed will not solve the problem. Under the current system of enforcement, if an illegal alien is detained by either Customs and Border Protection (CBP) or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), then provided that detainee beds are available, the illegal alien is detained and then deported back to his or her country of origin. For individuals from certain countries (such as Mexico), they may subject to the Expedited Removal process, and will be home within a week. The illegal alien can turn right around and sneak right back into the country. Other than being detained for a few days, there is no incentive for a Mexican national to not try coming right back. Even if we build a fence along the entire border, it is likely that the fence will be cut, scaled over, or knocked down.

So how do we deter Mexican nationals from sneaking into the country? The Soviet approach of shooting people crossing the border was effective, but is blantantly immoral. If we charge illegal immigrants with a felony (as the House bill attempts to do) and jail them, the United States will bear a significant cost in imprisoning millions of illegals. If the Mexican economy was as prosperous as ours, then there would be no need for Mexicans to illegally enter our country. Unfortunately, there is little that we can do to fix their economy without violating Mexico's sovereignty. And as the unification of East and West Germany showed, fixing broken economies can take decades.

The country that should have the primary responsibility for fixing the problem is Mexico. The Mexican government is best situated for fixing the problem. It could beef up border security. It could imprison people it caught trying to sneak over the border. It could heavily tax Western Union wire transfers coming into the country. However, the Mexican government doesn't want to fix the problem. In the current situation, it has effectively outsourced the responsibility for fixing its unemployment problems to the United States. And it reaps rewards as the money flows from illegals back to their families at home. And thus, not only does Mexico say, "it's not our problem", it has actively aided illegals coming to the United States.

So the solution to the problem is to find a way to pressure the Mexican government into taking responsibility for the problem. There doesn't seem to be an easy solution. The United States could threaten to leave NAFTA and impose draconian tarriffs unless the Mexican government stepped up to the plate. Unfortunately, if such tarriffs were imposed, the Mexican economy might collapse and there would be millions more desperate people trying to cross into the United States. So it seems that finding a good carrot is better than using the stick. But no matter what, Washington needs to look at every interaction with Mexico as a way of applying pressure on the Mexican government.