Immigration Solution: Mexican Freedom

 I came toArizonain 1967 to fly for the Air Force at Williams Air Force Base, now called Williams Gateway. During the next five years I frequently had occasion to fly along the border withMexicoas I traveled back and forth between Williams and bases inSouthern California. It always seemed odd that the major populated areas that straddled the border had an obvious difference in appearance between the portion on the Mexican side and the portion on theUnited Statesside. The most obvious was the fact that the streets tended to be paved on theUnited Statesside and tended to be dirt or gravel on the Mexican side. The housing and commercial properties also seemed to be of poorer quality on the Mexican side.

 I often wondered why this would be so. The terrain was no different; the natural resources were no different; the people, for the most part, were no different. Why is there a clear economic division between theUnited StatesandMexico? It was not until I began reading the free market philosophers like Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman that I figured out that the reason is that we have greater freedom in theUnited Statesand freedom works. Conversely, there is greater government oppression inMexicoand systems of government oppression do not work.

 It then became clear to me how can we help the citizens ofMexicoand reduce the immigration tensions: all we need to do is to advocate and pursue more economic and political freedom for Mexicans. Then they will experience the same economic boom that citizens of theUnited Statesexperience. Mexican citizens will not have to face huge personal and legal dangers inherent in crossing our borders to experience these benefits that freedom provides.

 One might logically ask why we do not hear politicians and editorialists calling for more freedom for Mexicans. I contend that it is because it is much easier to focus on democracy rather than freedom because democracy is easier to obtain. Even though we have democracy in theUnited States, our own march toward socialism is causing us to lose more of our freedoms.

 We should not focus on democracy as the solution. We are making the same mistake in Iraq, i.e., we are more concerned about allowing the citizens of Iraq the right to vote than we are about insuring their ability to own property, to have private contracts enforced, and their individual rights protected.

 If we can’t help make these kind of changes in a country that is right on our border, the country of Mexico, what makes us think we can accomplish this in Iraq, a country 10,000 miles away that has a markedly different culture?

 I suggest that we do everything we can to insure thatMexicomoves in the direction of protecting individual liberties………and that, in order to avoid hypocrisy, we stop the erosion of individual rights in our own country.