Hola! Mexico: Please Keep Your Tomatoes

The backlash apparently is continuing with respect to the bill signed by Arizona's Governor Jan Brewer in a purported attempt to curtail the deaths, property losses and drug trafficking that has been occuring in the State of Arizona for literally decades - and which escalated in leaps and bounds since the Reagan amnesty in the mid 1980's.

What has truly astounded me as a former long term Arizona resident, a victim of illegal immigrant crime, one an identity theft related to a stolen credit card which ocurred at one of a chain of lucrative car washes owned by a well-known and well-heeled Valley businessman who also owns several restaurants from published reports, is the reaction of Mexico.

Although, if past history serves, shouldn't be surprised but due to the amount of illegals that the State of Arizona has that are Mexican Nationals most of which are Mexico's poorer citizens and after 9-11 and with the explosive situation escalating with respect to the drug cartels operating cross borders that Mexico's President(s), past and present, have been unable to eliminate, the audacity simply outrageous.

Ex-Presidente Calderon was quoted as stating that if the local authorities in Arizona actually BEGIN enforcing federal immigration laws and cracking down, it may affect those trade agreements we have with Mexico.

My question: And which country is benefitting from those "free trade" trade agreements more?

Mexico has been the recipient of American taxpayer sums in the form of the Merida Initiative which resulted in the American people paying to provide literally millions of dollars worth of Silicon Valley's gadgets for their border patrol officers, and Hillary Clinton promised them two American made Blackhawk helicopters to boot, from all reports.

No wonder the majority in that left wing State of California want those borders in Arizona to continue to be unsecured, in order to feed their Silicon Valley venture capitalists, while they of course in the 90's got added fencing and security for San Diego when those residents safety was being compromised form the drug runs from Tijuana and has a much narrower border than Arizona with Mexico, or at least those active border towns that can make it through the entire state in one evening stealing cars or distributing their wares to the local high schools and middle schools.

In fact, the largest group of immigrants to Arizona is actually displaced Californians when they all moved to the Arizona desert in droves after ruining their own state with their excesses, which continues to date and are well on their way to ruining Arizona now, or at least the Arizona I knew and loved and grew up in pre-Reagan (another California wacko in some of his economic theories at the cost of the border states, especially Arizona).

GM has a factory there, which is humming right along, although the autoworkers in GM's Detroit plants were given the pink slip.
Americans cross the borders by the droves in order to purchase a great deal of their prescription medications along those border towns, at least before the drug wars broke out, pumping millions more into their economy.

The balance of tourism in the resort industry weighs heavily toward Americans who visit Mexico and spend their dollars on hotels, meals and trinkets, than it does on Mexicans legally traveling to this country for vacations.

Those cruise liners headed for the Mexican Riviera pick up few Mexican citizens for the return trips.

Americans or foreigners are not even allowed to own land in that country, rather may only lease it from a Mexican corporate entity or citizen for 99 year terms, which can be taken from them for any reason, or no reason.

Our universities and schools of higher learning have taken in literally thousands of citizens of Mexico and educated them, even affording them tuition free scholarships as has occurred at Arizona State University with private grants handed out annually in the thousands, which has quite also upset the Arizona resident's whose children now are paying six figures to get their educations, many of whose parents have supported that university with their taxes since their birth.

I, of course, do not agree with the focus of the actions that are being taken to address this issue, and feel that what occurred in Arizona last week is another travesty in the making due to the fact that it has given now these "foreign" individuals a forum once again who are not Arizonans and do not live there nor have even a shred of knowledge on just how much this situation has cost those full time Arizonans, some their homes and jobs - a state which is now consistently in the top five in the foreclosure mess.

Insurance rates in that state have far, far exceeded the cost of living, especially auto and property insurance.

And this bill will bankrupt them even more.

Between the Mexicans and the Canadians, and the transplants, many of whom also do not live in Arizona full time, I just wonder what Mexico's reactions would be if the espadrille was on the other foot?

Please, Mexico, keep your tomatoes.

And your drug dealers, and those poor auto and credit card thieves.

I challenge Seth Meyer and the Saturday Night Live crew to make a ten year commitment to living in metro Phoenix, outside a gated community - and then let's see what new skits they come up with.

A great one would be a parody on the Mexican auto thieves and how they cruise the neighborhoods looking for the small foreign imports in order to make low riders, or half ton pickups in order to be able to haul those drugs around the neighborhoods quicker.

I wonder just how much those two industries also pump into the Mexican economy?

I'm sort of hoping that these boycotts will clear out the state of all those displaced Californians from the 1980's and beyond who ruined their state with their excesses, the Canadians who are the loudest complainers, and those from Chicago and New York who move to Arizona and don't expect to see Mexican-Americans living there, illegal or otherwise, and who move into those gated communities they demanded for their own personal security needs.

Maybe then, as a political refugee from the 2006 attempted amnesty, which would have legalized those drug dealers, the ones able to afford the criminal and immigration lawyers after they beat their raps, I might be able to someday return to Arizona for even a visit without having my sleep interrupted by the searchlights searching the washes which occur every Friday and Saturday night about 2:00 a.m. after a minor bust, since the major dealers have speed dial on their cell phones for their U.S. lawyers.

I think this is one Free Trade Agreement we can live without.