But when Central Americans move to Mexico, one of the richest Latin nations, Mexicans suddenly remember the importance of national sovereignty. Mexico also doesn’t like other nation’s citizens passing through [...]]]> Mexico’s idea of utopia would be an open border to the United States, with Mexican moochers having unlimited access to the wealth American citizens have generated.

But when Central Americans move to Mexico, one of the richest Latin nations, Mexicans suddenly remember the importance of national sovereignty. Mexico also doesn’t like other nation’s citizens passing through on their way to the United States because it wants Mexicans to get those jobs.

One measure of Mexico’s attitude of sovereignty for me but not for thee (America) is the number of Central Americans it deports. Note that the number given is for 11 months, not a full year. Perhaps topping 50,000 was thought to appear too high…

Mexico Deports Nearly 50,000 Central Americans, Fox News Latino, January 3, 2012

A total of 46,716 Central Americans were deported from Mexico between Jan. 1 and Nov. 30, 2011, said the National Migration Institute (INM).

The majority of the migrants – 41,215 – were men and nearly half, some 23,560, were from Guatemala, the INM said in a statement.

All of the migrants were deported in an “easy, orderly, dignified and safe” manner, the INM said.

The Central Americans who were returned to their countries accounted for 74 percent of the foreigners processed at Mexican immigration facilities.

The remaining foreigners were either given asylum, granted humanitarian visas or sent home using different repatriation systems, the INM said.

An estimated 300,000 Central Americans undertake the hazardous journey across Mexico each year on their way to the United States.

The trek is a dangerous one, with criminals and corrupt Mexican officials preying on the migrants.

Gangs kidnap, exploit and murder migrants, who are often targeted in extortion schemes, Mexican officials said.

Central American migrants follow a long route that first takes them into Chiapas state, which is on the border with Guatemala, walking part of the way or riding aboard freight trains, buses and cargo trucks.

The flow of migrants has increased markedly in the northern and northeastern parts of Mexico since U.S. officials increased security along the border in the northwestern part of the country.

You would think he believes Mexicans have a right to be in the United States and should be allowed to stay no matter what. Such [...]]]> Mexico’s Presidente Calderon (pictured below in the South Park style) has complained that Mexican citizens given a free trip home (courtesy of the American taxpayer) are committing crimes upon their return.

You would think he believes Mexicans have a right to be in the United States and should be allowed to stay no matter what. Such is the sense of entitlement that Washington’s permissiveness has created in Mexico.

Mexican Says U.S. Deportations Exacerbate Crime in Mexico, Latin American Herald Tribune, October 18, 2011

MEXICO CITY – President Felipe Calderon on Monday accused U.S. authorities of deporting Mexican criminals to save on judicial costs, a policy that ostensibly “exacerbates” violence in this country.

Within the framework of the inauguration of National Immigration Week 2011 in this capital, Calderon said that, for example, U.S. authorities “are deporting up to 80,000 people in a year” into the border cities of Reynosa and Ciudad Juarez.

Some of these deported people “are migrants, certainly, probably all of them,” although some were “already involved in criminal acts” in the United States.

“In the face of the dilemma of pursuing the legal process in the American courts, which implies costs for the administration of justice in that country, they simply prefer to deport them to border cities, by which the cycle of violence is exacerbated even more,” he said.

The Mexican leader went on to say that it is “truly inhumane and scandalous” that U.S. authorities are apprehending and deporting alone and “without any protection” children as young as 6.

Those minors who cross Mexico from Central America run the risk along the way of becoming victims of “criminal bands,” are exposed to the dangers of crossing the border and, in addition, confront the security forces of the United States,” Calderon said.

“I hope authorities in other countries become aware of how aberrant it is to leave a child to his fate in our country, without guaranteeing that he can once again find his parents or relatives,” he said. EFE

The latest effort is Mexico’s new law supposedly to protect OTMs as they pass through to the United States. There has been a lot of bad press over massacres like the Zeta gang mass [...]]]> Mexico’s Presidente Calderon never misses an opportunity to backstab the United States in the ongoing aggression by our non-friend to the south.

The latest effort is Mexico’s new law supposedly to protect OTMs as they pass through to the United States. There has been a lot of bad press over massacres like the Zeta gang mass murder of 72 passers-through last August, so some sort of action, however insincere, was needed.

It has also been a bone of contention that Mexico’s immigration enforcement has been quite tough, while the Mexicans have hypocritically squawked loud and long about Arizona’s SB1070.

So the pols have plopped out some new legislation, although it won’t stop gangs doing whatever they please. Plus it’s doubtful that non-Mexicans will suddenly be made welcome, when they haven’t been before. One Central American complained that they were “clubbed like seals in Canada.”

The law seems mostly window-dressing, with generous-sounding items like healthcare and education for illegals in Mexico.

But who goes to Mexico to get the freebie services? There aren’t any for the Mexicans; it’s why they leave. The law a gimmick to snipe at the United States for not having open borders with free everything for Mexes. Don’t miss Calderon’s carping at the end where he sniffs that “the United States does not have a legal framework that permits this natural flow.”

No, the US has only the most generous system of legal immigration on earth, plus an alphabet soup of work visa programs, including H2A for field workers.

But what would the Presidente of a failing state know about law anyway.

Mexico law aims to reduce risks to migrants passing through, Los Angeles Times, May 28, 2011

The measure decriminalizes entering Mexico without papers and entitles the undocumented to education and health services. It also promises a big overhaul of the scandal-plagued immigration agency.

They looked like spooky, glow-in-the-dark Gumby figures. Hundreds of migrants from eight countries packed cheek to jowl in the back of two cargo trucks, stretching and contorting to find space and air.

Their images were captured by an X-ray scanner inspecting vehicles in southern Mexico. The discovery on May 17 — the largest single interception of smuggled foreign nationals — once again turned up the pressure on Mexico to safeguard migrants who cross the country on their way to the United States, a journey that has become dangerous and costly.

Nearly 500,000 people from Central America and beyond traverse Mexico each year en route to the U.S., according to the Mexican government human rights office. Most now have to pay a smuggler, and increasingly, they are kidnapped, held for ransom and in the most brutal of cases, killed. Their tormentors are criminal gangs often working in cahoots with Mexican immigration and police agents, authorities say.

President Felipe Calderon, his administration chastised by foreign governments for how their citizens are treated, this week signed a new immigration law aimed at reducing the risks. The measure decriminalizes the act of entering the country without papers and entitles the undocumented to education and health services. It also promises a major overhaul of the scandal-plagued federal immigration agency.

“Migration puts people in a very serious situation of vulnerability,” Calderon said. “It puts them in humiliating conditions, exposed to every kind of abuse.”

The law requires immigration agents to undergo special training and vetting, and it establishes criminal penalties for agents who abuse migrants or violate their rights. It also seeks to streamline paperwork for migrants. Although an undocumented foreigner is not to be considered a criminal, he or she is required to obtain papers that might include a so-called humanitarian visa.

Nearly 200 agents have been fired in the last year for a number of infractions, and 40 are facing jail time, said Salvador Beltran del Rio, head of the governmental National Institute of Migration. Seven regional directors were fired this month amid allegations that agents had delivered Central American migrants to kidnapping gangs. Two more agents were arrested last week on charges they were forcing female Central American migrants into prostitution.

Human rights advocates were skeptical that the new law would relieve migrants’ ordeal, in large part because these men and women have so often seen authorities colluding with the gangsters and remain reluctant to cooperate with officials.

“Most have no desire to denounce what has happened to them,” said Alberto Xicotencatl, who helps run a network of church-based shelters for migrants in the north-central city of Saltillo. “If they escape a kidnapping, most just want to go home.”

Not only has the journey across Mexico become more dangerous for migrants, it has also become more expensive — and wildly lucrative for those controlling the routes and arranging the kidnappings and extortions.

In the May 17 interception, authorities found 513 migrants crammed into the two tractor-trailer trucks in what were described as horrific conditions. It was sweltering hot, and there was no fresh air and little water. Most told authorities they had paid $7,000 a head for the trip, which would represent a take of nearly $3.6 million.

While the vast majority of the migrants were Guatemalans, a dozen were from India and a handful from Nepal and China, as people from far-flung corners of the world look to the Mexican route for entry into the U.S. Authorities say more than 2,000 people listed as Asians were registered at migrant shelters in Mexico last year.

The massacre last summer of 72 mostly Central American migrants, purportedly by the notorious Zeta cartel, stands as the single deadliest incident in 4 1/2 years of drug-war fighting. This spring, nearly 200 bodies were found in mass graves in the northern border state of Tamaulipas, and many of the victims are thought to have been on their way to the U.S. in search of work.

Calderon, in signing the new law, said he hoped that bringing immigrants out of the shadows of clandestine living would make them less likely to fall victim to the “evil and perverse” trafficking gangs — especially since migration from Mexico to the U.S. is an economic phenomenon that is not going away.

“As long as the United States does not have a legal framework that permits this natural flow and channels it in an orderly way,” Calderon added, “migrants will continue to run the risk of becoming part of a market run by unscrupulous criminals. That is the reality.”

Backwater Mexico has been affected by the same advances, albeit in its own unique way. Mexicans already have a well developed fondness for criminal activities, [...]]]> Here in the first world, internet technology has had huge effects on popular culture, with nifty music aps and do-it-yourself Youtubes opening up whole new areas of entertainment and creativity.

Backwater Mexico has been affected by the same advances, albeit in its own unique way. Mexicans already have a well developed fondness for criminal activities, expressed in music known as narcocorridos which romanticizes drug smuggling and its associated murder and torture.

Musicians can make a nice living warbling narco-ditties about gangsters — as long as they are careful and lucky. Sometimes a crooner offends a drug kingpin (often by praising a rival) who then plunks the musician, as has happened to well known performers like Valentin Elizalde and Chalino Sanchez. Glorifying a violent lifestyle has its down side.

In addition, criminals have created their own violent religion to reflect their values, in which they worship the patron saint of smuggling Jesus Malverde (pictured) and Saint Death (see my article Mexico Mainlines Malevolence).

These days, celebrating narco-diversity has been taken up by the criminals themselves, who post their own bloody Youtube videos. Doing so has the twofer advantage of intimidating their enemies and expressing pride in their work.

Unfortunately, Mexican kids residing here and in the dear homeland are marinated in this poison. Why should they finish the eighth grade when they can be a flashy killer? Permitting millions from a retrograde, crime-friendly culture to live in America is a long-term serious mistake.

Narco culture glamorizes violent lifestyle in Mexico and in Texas, KENS 5, San Antonio, February 20, 2011

Warring drug cartels fighting for turf in Mexico, especially near the border, seem to be winning a battle for the hearts and minds of many young people enticed by the power, money and flashy images that glamorize the narco lifestyle.

Songs that glorify drug lords, movies about their exploits and social networks, offer a seductive view of a violent lifestyle.

Narco corridos, or ballads, about the life and death legends of drug traffickers have existed as long as there have been smugglers. But the current rise of narco culture parallels the growth of powerful drug cartels.

Mexican Narco cinema, which enjoyed a heyday in the 70s still captures a wide audience on video with action-packed scenes featuring big trucks, big guns, and battling drug smugglers.

But these days the B movies have been replaced by real life crime scenes posted by traffickers and young hit men on YouTube. Some are set to music and showcase gruesome killings.

University of Texas at El Paso professor, Howard Campbell, calls it “a counterculture of criminality.” Campbell is an anthropologist and the author of  ”Drug War Zone: Frontline Dispatches from the Streets of El Paso and Juarez.”

Campbell explains, “This whole style of living, this counterculture of crime, has become actually seductive for hundreds of thousands of people in Mexico and especially the young.”

Narco culture has roots in lawless regions of Mexico and thrives in places where there are few economic or educational opportunities for young people. “And as they look and see this alternative society of people making a lot of money quickly through crime,” said Campbell, “and they see it’s also stylish because of the music and clothing and fancy trucks people drive.”

In addition to style, there is a spiritual aspect to narco culture and a growing devolution to folk saints like La Santa Muerte, Holy Death — who looks like a female Grim Reaper. Followers pray for protection for themselves or loved ones involved in the dangerous drug trade. The largest shrine is tucked away in the Tepito neighborhood of Mexico City, which is notorious for black market goods.

Drug smugglers have adopted Jesus Malverde, a Robin Hood-like figure popular with the poor as their patrol saint.  There is even a Facebook page for Malverde with plenty of friends.

In person, followers pay homage to Malverde with serenades and other offerings at a shrine in Culican, Sinaloa. The Pacific coast state is the birthplace of Mexico’s major drug trafficking families. And just as those early families have grown into global cartels, narco culture has also spread, often along key smuggling routes that lead to the border and beyond.

“As a pastor of the Catholic church, for me it’s a big challenge how to deal with this situation,” said Father Antonio Urrutia, who works on both sides of the border in El Paso and Ciudad Juarez.

Drug cartels are locked in a bloody battle for lucrative smuggling routes in Juarez that have turned the border city into Mexico’s murder capital.

Father Urrutia says he sees youngsters in his parish influenced by the bloody power struggle. “Rather than lawyers, doctors or teachers, now they want to be drug traffickers, or hit men because of the money and power,” he explained.

Others turn to the drug trade out of desperation. The hit movie in Mexico  ”El Infierno,” portrays this scenario in an epic satire. Benny Garcia, an immigrant deported from the U.S. after many years  returns to find his small hometown overrun with drug traffickers. He is lured into the drug trade, too. The dark comedy by Mexican director, Luis Estrada, is based on painfully real situations. Audiences packed theaters when it premiered last fall.

The lure of narco culture does not stop at the border. Popular music videos from bands like Los Tucanes de Tijuana or Los Cadetes de Linares have fans in both countries.
Likewise, there are faithful followers of narco saints in the U.S.

In Laredo, figures Santa Muerte and Malverde figures lined the shelves of several small shops. None of the merchants wanted there stores identified. But one clerk said there was a wholesale distributor who stocked stores across Texas in Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.

Whether celebrated secretly in the U.S. or openly in Mexico, narco culture has a growing influence  on both sides of the border.

(Memo to [...]]]> I’m not a lawyer, so I don’t understand how obnoxious MEXICO (a foreign country) gets any attention whatsoever by our American court system when the Mexicans gripe about our interior policies of immigration enforcement. It’s none of their business, period. If Mexicans are here illegally, then they are at the mercy of American justice.

(Memo to Mexico: your problems will not be solved by an open border to the United States. Or by a fantasy political union that will never happen.)

Furthermore, Mexico City’s hostile action is another brick on a rather large pile of evidence that Mexico is an Enemy, not a friend of this country and the American people.

Mexico asks court to reject Ariz. immigration law, AP, June 22, 2010

Mexico on Tuesday asked a federal court in Arizona to declare the state’s new immigration law unconstitutional, arguing that the country’s own interests and its citizens’ rights are at stake.

Lawyers for Mexico on Tuesday submitted a legal brief in support of one of five lawsuits challenging the law. The law will take effect July 29 unless implementation is blocked by a court.

The law generally requires police investigating another incident or crime to ask people about their immigration status if there’s a “reasonable suspicion” they’re in the country illegally. It also makes being in Arizona illegally a misdemeanor, and it prohibits seeking day-labor work along the state’s streets.

Citing “grave concerns,” Mexico said its interest in having predictable, consistent relations with the United States shouldn’t be frustrated by one U.S. state.

Mexico also said it has a legitimate interest in defending its citizens’ rights and that the law would lead to racial profiling, hinder trade and tourism, and strain the countries’ work on combatting drug trafficking and related violence.

“Mexican citizens will be afraid to visit Arizona for work or pleasure out of concern that they will be subject to unlawful police scrutiny and detention,” the brief said.

Mexican invaders are pests, not “friends” by any definition. If Mexicans are “afraid to visit Arizona” then that’s a good thing, since many forget to return home.

Meanwhile, the war against America by Mexican organized crime continues apace and is making steady inroads. The narco-traffickers surely realize that the Obama Presidency is a terrific opportunity for them to expand north, and they are doing so with alacrity. Furthermore, the narco-traffickers are doing the work of the Mexican government — expanding Mexican interests north and pushing the North Americans back. Maybe that’s why Mexico City is not pushing too hard against the narcos (along with all the billions of dollars flowing in to the narco-state).

The head of DHS Janet Napolitano said in April that the US-Mexico border is “as secure now as it has ever been.” Such is the level of awareness of the current administration. On the other hand, police officers are a little closer to the ground, like Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu who recently described the border area as “out of control.”

In his newly discovered role of border enforcer, Senator John McCain recently spoke on the floor of the Senate in a colloquy with Senator Kyl to show how a large piece of southern Arizona has become a no-go zone for Americans, indicating that Washington is giving up territory to drug cartels rather than defending US territory within the perimeter. The BLM has posted a sign that warns Americans to avoid an area that amount to about 20 percent of the area of Arizona (according to Sen. Kyl), namely below Interstate 8:

Danger. Public Warning. Travel Not Recommended. Active Drug and Human Smuggling Area. Visitors May Encounter Armed Criminals and Smuggling Vehicles Traveling at High Rates of Speed. Stay Away From Trash, Clothing, Backpacks and Abandoned Vehicles. If You See Suspicious Activity, Do Not Confront. Move Away and Call 911. BLM Encourages Visitors to Use Public Lands North of Interstate 8.

The video below of the two Senators in that discussion is 23 minutes long, but is a worthwhile analysis about how the border can be secured using policies that have been proven effective in other sectors (more personnel, additional surveillance, Operation Streamline).

In other territorial invasion news, Mexican organized crime is becoming more comfortably ensconced in America:

Mexican Gangs Maintain Permanent Lookout Bases in Hills of Arizona, Fox News, June 22, 2010

Mexican drug cartels have set up shop on American soil, maintaining lookout bases in strategic locations in the hills of southern Arizona from which their scouts can monitor every move made by law enforcement officials, federal agents tell Fox News.

The scouts are supplied by drivers who bring them food, water, batteries for radios — all the items they need to stay in the wilderness for a long time.

“To say that this area is out of control is an understatement,” said an agent who patrols the area and asked not to be named. “We (federal border agents), as well as the Pima County Sheriff Office and the Bureau of Land Management, can attest to that.”

If those lookout spots are on public lands, then why aren’t they being used for Special Forces training?

Anyway, what does it take for Washington to realize a real invasion is advancing against us? Obama seems to believe his political agenda of rewarding millions of pre-Democrat lawbreakers is more important than defending America’s borders, sovereignty and people. That has to stop.

The Situation Room, CNN, May 19, 2010

BLITZER: All right. Let’s talk a little bit about Mexico’s laws. I read an article in “The Washington [...]]]> When Presidente Calderon did his amnesty tour of Washington last week, he told CNN interviewer Wolf Blitzer that Mexico had cleaned up its act regarding treatment of foreign nationals within its borders.

The Situation Room, CNN, May 19, 2010

BLITZER: All right. Let’s talk a little bit about Mexico’s laws. I read an article in “The Washington Times” the other day. I’m going to read a paragraph to you and you tell me if this is true or not true. This is from “The Washington Times”: “Under the Mexican law, illegal immigration is a felony punishable by up to two years in prison. Immigrants who are deported and attempt to reenter can be imprisoned for 10 years. Visa violators can be sentenced to six year terms. Mexicans who help illegal immigrants are considered criminals.”

Is that true?

CALDERON: It was true, but it is not anymore. We derogate or we erased that part of the law. Actually, the legal immigration is not a — is not a crime in Mexico. Not anymore, since one year ago. And that is the reason why we are trying to establish our own comprehensive public policy talking about, for instance, immigrants coming from Central America… […]

BLITZER: So in other words, if somebody sneaks in from Nicaragua or some other country in Central America, through the southern border of Mexico, they wind up in Mexico, they can go get a job…

CALDERON: No, no.

BLITZER: They can work.

CALDERON: If — if somebody do that without permission, we send back — we send back them.

BLITZER: You find them and you send them back?

CALDERON: Yes. However, especially with the people of Guatemala, we are providing a new system in which any single citizen from Guatemala could be able to visit any single border (INAUDIBLE) in the south. And even with all the requirements, he can or she can visit any parts of Mexico.

BLITZER: I ask the questions because there’s an argument that people in Arizona and New Mexico and — and Texas, they say they’re only trying to do in their states what Mexico itself does in the southern part of Mexico.

CALDERON: I know. And that is a very powerful argument. But that is one of the reasons why we are trying to change our policy.

And let me be frank, Wolf. In the past, Mexican authorities were in a — in a — in an unfortunate way in the treatment for immigrants. But now we are changing the policy. We changed already the law. And that is different today. We are trying to write a new story, talking about immigrants, especially coming from Central American countries.

So Mexico supposedly made its immigration laws more humane as a way to not appear a complete hypocrite in comparison with America.

However…

It appears that the “reforms” Calderon claims for Mexico are imaginary, according to a recent report:

Activists blast Mexico’s immigration law, USA Today, May 25, 2010

TULTITLN, Mexico — Arizona’s new law forcing local police to take a greater role in enforcing immigration law has caused a lot of criticism from Mexico, the largest single source of illegal immigrants in the United States.

But in Mexico, illegal immigrants receive terrible treatment from corrupt Mexican authorities, say people involved in the system.

And Mexico has a law that is no different from Arizona’s that empowers local police to check the immigration documents of people suspected of not being in the country legally.

“There (in the United States), they’ll deport you,” Hector Vázquez, an illegal immigrant from Honduras, said as he rested in a makeshift camp with other migrants under a highway bridge in Tultitlán. “In Mexico they’ll probably let you go, but they’ll beat you up and steal everything you’ve got first.”

Mexican authorities have harshly criticized Arizona’s SB1070, a law that requires local police to check the status of persons suspected of being illegal immigrants. The law provides that a check be done in connection with another law enforcement event, such as a traffic stop, and also permits Arizona citizens to file lawsuits against local authorities for not fully enforcing immigration laws.

Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said the law “violates inalienable human rights” and Democrats in Congress applauded Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s criticisms of the law in a speech he gave on Capitol Hill last week.

Yet Mexico’s Arizona-style law requires local police to check IDs. And Mexican police freely engage in racial profiling and routinely harass Central American migrants, say immigration activists.

“The Mexican government should probably clean up its own house before looking at someone else’s,” said Melissa Vertíz, spokeswoman for the Fray Matías de Córdova Human Rights Center in Tapachula, Mexico.

In one six-month period from September 2008 through February 2009, at least 9,758 migrants were kidnapped and held for ransom in Mexico — 91 of them with the direct participation of Mexican police, a report by the National Human Rights Commission said. Other migrants are routinely stopped and shaken down for bribes, it said.

A separate survey conducted during one month in 2008 at 10 migrant shelters showed Mexican authorities were behind migrant attacks in 35 of 240 cases, or 15%.

Most migrants in Mexico are Central Americans who are simply passing through on their way to the United States, human rights groups say. Others are Guatemalans who live and work along Mexico’s southern border, mainly as farm workers, as maids, or in bars and restaurants.

The Central American migrants headed to the United States travel mainly on freight trains, stopping to rest and beg for food at rail crossings like the one in Tultitlán, an industrial suburb of Mexico City.

On a recent afternoon, Victor Manuel Beltrán Rodríguez of Managua, Nicaragua, trudged between the cars at a stop light, his hand outstretched.

“Can you give me a peso? I’m from Nicaragua,” he said. Every 10 cars or so, a motorist would roll down the window and hand him a few coins. In a half-hour he had collected 10 pesos, about 80 U.S. cents, enough for a taco.

Beltrán Rodríguez had arrived in Mexico with 950 pesos, about $76, enough to last him to the U.S. border. But near Tierra Blanca, Veracruz, he says municipal police had detained him, driven him to a deserted road and taken his money. He had been surviving since then by begging.

Abuses by Mexican authorities have persisted even as Mexico has relaxed its rules against illegal immigrants in recent years, according to the National Human Rights Commission.

In 2008, Mexico softened the punishment for illegal immigrants, from a maximum 10 years in prison to a maximum fine of $461. Most detainees are taken to detention centers and put on buses for home.

Mexican law calls for six to 12 years of prison and up to $46,000 in fines for anyone who shelters or transports illegal immigrants. The Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that the law applies only to people who do it for money.

So not much has changed in gentle Mexico.