We never would be inhospitable to a neighbor and a friend, but we are a tad apprehensive about today's visit to California by Mexican President Vicente Fox.
It's no reflection on Fox, or on the vital relationship between our state and Mexico. It's just that this really isn't the best time for a visit from the chief executive of the country that many Americans blame for our immigration woes.
This is a delicate juncture in the relationship between the United States and Mexico, and a historic moment with regard to U.S. immigration policy. There's a lot happening, not the least of which is that the Senate could – as early as today – vote on a massive bill that would deliver comprehensive immigration reform. Among other things, the bill would provide millions of illegal immigrants a path to legal residency.
That is exactly what Fox wants – to bring Mexican nationals out of the shadows and match willing workers with willing employers – and it's what he and President Bush have been working toward for almost five years. So, one can hardly blame the Mexican president for wanting to help close the deal with a visit to the United States. But our fear has been that Fox could just as easily unravel the deal, if he said or did the wrong thing while on U.S. soil.
We're glad to see that on this visit Fox has for the most part been circumspect in his remarks and reluctant to comment on the immigration issue.
That's for the best. Among anti-illegal immigration activists, the Mexican president is about as popular as a skunk at a picnic. The way many Americans see it, Fox is in a poor position to lecture the United States. After all, the argument goes, if he were doing a better job of providing opportunity for his own people in his own country, the United States wouldn't have a problem with illegal immigration in the first place.
The truth is more complicated. Americans can't simply continue to blame Mexico for illegal immigration, when it's American employers who continually put out the “Help Wanted” signs.
But this much is true: Mexico has failed most of its people. Granted, Fox is an improvement over the corrupt Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled Mexico for 71 years and used the presidency to line the pockets of party officials. But throughout Mexico not much has changed. It's still a country in need of an economic plan and one that caters to the few at the expense of the many. And it's still a country that leaves most of its people to seek opportunity elsewhere, to the point that it could not survive if all its migrants came home to stay. With its expatriates in the United States sending home nearly $20 billion annually in remittances, Mexico has an enormous stake in our immigration reform debate.
But it's our debate. Fox would be wise to continue to stay out of it during the rest of his visit. If he feels compelled to comment on the immigration issue while in California, he should at least tread lightly. To do otherwise could set back the process and undermine the very cause he champions.
