Why Mexico Opposes A Border Wall

Mexico's crooked political class has thrown a hissy fit about presidential candidate Donald Trump's proposal to build a wall along the U.S. border. Like spoiled brats, the powerful elitists have stomped their feet and hurled insults at the very idea that a nation would insist on securing its border.

Former Mexican presidents Felipe Calderon and Vicente Fox have been joined by the current finance minister in calling the plan "a terrible idea based on ignorance."  Their outrage has only been exceeded by the sheer gall of these Mexican party bosses to insert themselves into U.S. politics.

By every measurement, Mexico is one of the most unscrupulous counties on Earth.  Transparency International, a non-partisan global organization, ranked Mexico as the most corrupt country in the 20-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its 2014 report.

Organized crime and corruption are endemic in Mexico.  Dishonesty and exploitation are deeply entrenched in the country both economically and culturally.  Billions of narco dollars flow to politicians, police, unions, churches and businesses annually to ensure protection from the law.

The hypocrisy doesn't end there.  The real reason Mexico fears a wall is that it would stanch the illegal flow of its citizens into the United States.  Mexico's economy depends on the billions of dollars illegal and legal immigrants send back to their home country.  It is all about the money.

The flood of dollars from America to Mexico reached record levels last year.  More than $24.8 billion pored into Mexico from electronic transfers.  Those dollars were pumped back into the Mexican economy by immigrant relatives who used the money to purchase goods and services in their country.

For the first time in history, immigrants provided more revenues than the Mexican oil industry in 2015, according to a report by the non-partisan Pew Research Center.  Oil revenues last year totaled $23.4 billion, more than $1 billion less than what immigrants dispatched into Mexico.

Mexican immigrants contribute more than two percent of their country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).  However, in some of the poorest rural areas of the country, data shows that these remittances account for as much as 19.5 percent of the local economy.

Not only does this money prop up the Mexican economy, but it gives our southern neighbor every incentive to make sure thousands more of its citizens sneak into the U.S. illegally.

Mexicans account for nearly one-half (49%) of the illegal aliens living in America, figures from Pew Research Center document.  (Pew euphemistically calls these people "unauthorized immigrants" in its report.)  These illegal immigrants are taking away jobs from Americans.

Illegals make up 5.1 percent of the current U.S. labor force, estimates Pew Research.  The latest figures show that nearly 8.1 million illegals are either working or looking for a job in our country. These statistics are based on data from surveys conducted in 2012.

Pew research found that in a single one-year period (2008-2009) illegal aliens gained 656,000 jobs, while U.S. born workers lost 1.2 million jobs.  Jobs aren't the only issue.  By some estimates, illegal immigration costs federal, state and local governments $113 billion annually.

Billions are spent to educate illegal immigrant children, to provide medical care, dispense food stamps, assist with shelter and furnish other services.  These are American tax dollars subsidizing Mexico's citizens living illegally in our country with the full support of their government.

It is time for Mexico to end the charade.  Powerful economic and political interests want a porous U.S. border that allows a stream of people and money flowing back-and-forth between the countries. Mexico and its rotten politicians are being dishonest if they deny this fact.

Americans should make it clear that Mexico needs to butt out of U.S. politics.  This country has the right to decide how to secure its border without consulting Mexico's disgraceful political class.