Immigrant Impact 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.