A Simple Solution to the Immigration Issue

Sarah Palin would simply arm a bunch of good ol’ boys to line up on the border and blow away anyone trying to sneak into this country. It wouldn’t work and of course isn’t right, and the strategy we have today isn’t working any better. Perhaps we are all looking at the whole issue the wrong way. The solution is so simple, merge the two countries. It’s already happening. By 2050, better than 50% of the US population will be Hispanic and there isn’t a thing we can or should do to try to stop it.

I don’t think people should be allowed to break the law or collect benefits without paying taxes or gain citizenship simply because they can sneak across the border, and those three points are the main reasons why everyone is up in arms about illegal immigrants. The rest is racism or fear of the unknown, and America has always been racist and has always mistrusted foreigners and, even though we have made some progress, we still have a way to go on both fronts. If the US and Mexico agreed to merge, Americans would be free to move to Mexico, own land, start businesses, employ locals and help develop Mexico and Mexicans would be free to do what they are already doing now as illegals. I am not proposing exploitation, but an equal partnership that over time would make Mexico just a bunch more states within the United States.

Would there be problems with such a process, certainly. Are they insurmountable? Definitely not. Many Americans perceive Mexico as completely backward, corrupt, and impoverished; and parts of Mexico certainly are those things, but other parts of Mexico are modern and relatively prosperous; but even so, just as the western territories in the United States were initially undeveloped until the mid 1800s and most of the inhabitants were impoverished, prosperity came quickly as capitalism, free enterprise, and industriousness worked its magic. That was only a little over a century ago, and it took less than 50 years for California to go from an afterthought to one of the most prosperous regions of the country.

Such a move could be a win/win for both countries. Most certainly US businesses would flock to Mexico to take advantage of lower cost labor and untapped markets. With the status as a US territory, many of the challenges and concerns that have kept US businesses out of the country would be eliminated. Individuals from the US could move to Mexico in search of work, providing skills that may not be found in local workers. Mexican businesses and workers could feel free to move north or even commute without fear of harassment, imprisonment or exploitation. As Mexico’s economy improved, as it inevitably would, there would be more jobs, more opportunity, more business, and more need for infrastructure. There would also be more tax revenue and the once illegal immigrants would finally be part of the system. The US could compete with China in manufacturing once again and even though that may mean some US jobs might end up in Mexico, they’re already flowing to China and India, so at the very least, they would add to the US tax base.

This may sound like  a crazy idea, but so too did the Louisiana Purchase, the purchase of Alaska, the Erie Canal, the transcontinental railroad, the flight to the moon and on and on.

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