Suppose you were a foreigner in Mexico, whether as a tourist or an immigrant. How would you be treated by Mexico? Not very well, amigo. In fact, you'd find yourself wishing you were an illegal immigrant from Mexico, suffering in the U.S. with welfare, court advocates, free ER visits, and more.
J. Michael Waller, Ph.D. wrote an brief but eye-opening article called "Mexico's Immigration Law: Let's Try It Here At Home." It's timely reading in 2010, even if he wrote it four years ago.
Waller also wrote a four-page document (pdf) called "Mexico's Glass House: How the Mexican constitution treats foreign residents, workers and naturalized citizens." It's packed with facts that will surprise you and make you wonder how Mexican officials can be so incredibly hypocritical when they criticize the immigration policies of the United States.
The Mexican Constitution begins with this pretty phrase in Chapter 1, Article 1: "Every person in the United Mexican States shall enjoy the guarantees granted by this Constitution, which cannot be restricted or suspended except in such cases and under such conditions as are herein provided." Ah, but there's the catch. One of the "cases" and "conditions" includes foreigners and being a non-Mexican.
Chapter 2, Article 32 says that "Mexicans shall have priority over foreigners under equality of circumstances for all classes of concessions and for all employment, positions, or commissions of the Government in which the status of citizenship is not indispensable."
In brief, the Mexican Constitution states that:
• Immigrants and foreign visitors are banned from public political discourse.
• Immigrants and foreigners are denied certain basic property rights.
• Immigrants are denied equal employment rights.
• Immigrants and naturalized citizens will never be treated as real Mexican citizens.
• Immigrants and naturalized citizens are not to be trusted in public service.
• Immigrants and naturalized citizens may never become members of the clergy.
• Private citizens may make citizens arrests of lawbreakers (i.e., illegal immigrants) and hand them to the authorities.
• Immigrants may be expelled from Mexico for any reason and without due process.
You can read an authoritative English translation of the Constitution of Mexico, published by the Organization of American States, on the Website of Illinois State University. Quotations in this document are from the OAS translation. Or you can go directly to the PDF of the Mexican constitution at the OAS website.
Oh, and by the way: As soon as the Federal Government of Mexico declares that all people with any European ancestry will leave Mexico and go back to Europe, I'll agree to giving Arizona, California and other territory won in 1848 back. Until then, Mexico, shut the hell up.
