I'm no fan of the nativist brigade, to say the least. I think that if you believe in the free movement of goods and services across borders (aka: free trade) then that also implies accepting the free movement of people, since labor is a service. If you truly believe in free trade, you should reject all restrictions on who enters the country. There should be no such thing as illegal immigration from Mexico, a partner in the so-called North American Free Trade Agreement. As such, I believe the fence approved by Congress to separate the US and Mexico is a bad idea. It's a political solution, not a practical one.
That said, the reaction of the Mexican government is absurd. The Mexican Foreign Relations Department.sent a letter of protest to the US. Outgoing president Vicente Fox called the wall 'shameful.' His foreign secretary riducuously compared it to the Berlin Wall.
The AP noted Fox has spent his six years in office lobbying for a new guest worker program and an amnesty for the millions of Mexicans working illegally in the United States.
Yet it begs the question, why is the Mexican government so concerned with making sure its citizens CAN flee the country (the Berlin Wall having the opposite purpose)? Why does it want its labor force to go elsewhere?
Instead of contriving pseudo-nationalist fight with Washington, the conservative administration in Mexico City should focus more on improving the living standards of its people so they are less inclined to flee the country for economic reasons in the first place.
If the Mexican government worried more about poverty reduction, then maybe migration policy would take care of itself.
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