Closing the pressure valve

Today, President Bush signed the legislation that calls for a 700 mile fence to be built between the United States and Mexico. I won't go into the half-heartedness about a 700 mile fence being built on a 2,000 mile border, or the fact that we are still chock full of illegals that our executive and legislative branches seemingly have no intention of dealing with. What I do want to highlight is the reaction that this fence is eliciting from the Mexican government. By their over-the-top rhetoric, you would think they are panicky about something. The article to which I linked has some rather memorable comments from the outgoing and incoming presidents of Mexico. Here are some choice nuggets of amusement from the article:

"It is an embarrassment for the United States," [President Vicente] Fox said. "It is proof, perhaps, that the United States does not see immigration as a subject that corresponds to both countries."

No, President Fox, what is an embarrassment is your corrupt basket case of a country. If you could somehow clean up this corruption, Mexicans wouldn't be so hot to trot to jump the border in the first place, and this fence would not even be necessary. As much as I mock the gentle Canadians, I can't help but notice that we don't have a fence on our border with their country, and yet, I don't see an influx of illegal Canadians overrunning our countryside. What is a tragedy is that Mexico should be a paradise. It has everything: natural resources, coastline, tourism, seaports. Instead, American tourists are advised to stay in the tourist areas of the tourist towns on the coast. Going anywhere else puts one at risk of getting arbitrarily arrested by a federale' and being charged a hefty bribe in order to be released. It's pathetic.

"The decision made by Congress and the U.S. government is deplorable," [President-elect Felipe] Calderon said while on tour in Canada. "Humanity committed a grave error by constructing the Berlin wall and I am sure that today the United States is committing a grave error in constructing a wall along our northern border."

When I came across this article, before I even read it I knew that there would be some quote from a Mexican official bringing up the Berlin Wall. Newsflash, Felipe! The Berlin Wall was built to keep people in; this fence would be built to keep people out. I loathe to even mention it because this Berlin Wall argument is so patently absurd, but yet it keeps getting brought up over and over, so someone must think the imagery is working.

If you want a better comparison, you could liken our fence to the Great Wall of China, which was built to keep out the Hun and Mongol hordes to the north - too bad the Wall ultimately failed to keep them at bay. Another more modern-day example would be the fence in Israel that was built to keep out homicidal Palestinian bombers. It's a lot harder to set off your bomb vest in a Tel Aviv pizza parlor when you are forced to go through a guarded checkpoint in the fence, rather than just walking across the border.

The bottom line is that anything the United States does to keep our neighbors from the south from coming north is bad news for the hopelessly corrupt Mexican government. That people from Mexico can come to the United States illegally so easily is what helps to keep these corrupt people in power. If that Yankee Gringo pressure valve were closed, an explosive uprising in Mexico would be inevitable. Why else would Fox and Calderon resort to speaking in such an absurd fashion. They sound nervous to me.

Good Day to You, Sir