Immigrant Effects, Part 4
How bad is the situation? Most border cities of
Mexico are desperate places packed with tens or even hundreds
of thousands of people waiting for a chance to cross our border
northwards.
What makes the situation far more interesting is
that all the reputable surveys of Mexicans within Mexico come
up with the same reality: About 70% of all Mexicans in the country
of Mexico would leave Mexico and come to the United States if
given the chance.
That does not bode well for the United States. Further,
we have to look back into history to see some interesting corollaries
to today:
On January 19, 1917 Germany made an offer to the
Mexican government that should they enter the Great War on the
side of Germany then Mexico could have all the lands lost to them
by the Mexican American war of 1848 returned to them.
Mexico did some quick calculations and decided that
no matter how good an idea it might be in theory, it probably
would not work. Mexico was in a huge mess of a civil war and Pancho
Villa had already invaded the United States with an army of 1,000
troops and all it did was get the oddly pacifist American President
very upset. The president pacifist was so outraged at
Pancho Villa that he mobilized the entire U.S. Army and the entire
U.S.National Guard to go to our border with Mexico and point their
guns south. It only took about a week after Pancho Villa's attack
of an American town for U.S. Army troops to start massing along
the U.S. / Mexico border. Nearly half a million American troops
quickly appeared on Mexico's northern horizon.
The confidential reasons for Mexico's declining
the offer were documented as follows: The United States would
probably get even more upset. Mexico did not have enough guns
to shoot enough times to make it all work. The population of the
United States had so few Hispanics living there and Mexico was
so small in population that they could not invade and control
the territory -- let alone the people (see Iraq today).
But do not think that Mexico did not mull it all
over for a very long time. The offer was made on January 19,1917
and President Venustiano Carranza did not finally reject the proposal
until April 14, 1917. Yes, four months later.
The book is "Across the Wire".
