Mexico's immigration double standard.

"If Arnold Schwarzenegger had migrated to Mexico instead of the United States, he couldn't be a governor. If Argentina native Sergio Villanueva, firefighter hero of the Sept. 11 attacks, had moved to Tecate instead of New York, he wouldn't have been allowed on the force." So reported Associated Press reporter in Mexico Mark Stevenson, in a May 21 article entitled "Mexico Works to Bar Non-Natives From Jobs." Stevenson noted: "Even as Mexico presses the United States to grant unrestricted citizenship to millions of undocumented Mexican migrants, its officials at times calling U.S. policies 'xenophobic,' Mexico places daunting limitations on anyone born outside its territory."

The fact is that Mexico is very restrictive on immigration and very punitive with those who violate its immigration laws. While demanding the full rights of U.S. citizenship for millions of its citizens who have illegally entered the United States, Mexico, a nation of 107 million, only accepts around 3,000 immigrants per year. And those few who are accepted are put through a stringent screening process.

In an earlier April 19 story entitled "Few Protections for Migrants to Mexico," AP's Mark Stevenson told of the harrowing or deals faced by Central American illegal aliens in Mexico: "Considered felons by the government, these migrants fear detention, rape and robbery. Police and soldiers hunt them down at railroads, bus stations and fleabag hotels. Sometimes they are deported; more often officers simply take their money." Stevenson noted that although "Mexico demands humane treatment for its citizens who migrate to the U.S., regardless of their legal status, Mexico provides few protections for migrants on its own soil."

Nevertheless, Mexican officials regularly hypocritically attack U.S. immigration policies. On January 9 of this year, for instance, Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez hosted a conference of Central American foreign ministers to denounce H.R. 4437, the immigration enforcement bill passed in December by the U.S. House of Representatives. Derbez called the House-passed legislation "stupid and underhanded." Derbez and the assembled diplomats condemned the U.S. proposal to make illegal entry into the United States a felony (although it is a felony to do so in their countries) and to build fences or walls along the U.S. border. "Migrants, regardless of their migratory status, should not be treated like criminals," they said.