haga a otros (Do unto others) …

Those who wish to protect the borders of the United States from illegal immigration are often criticized for their nationalistic attitudes. It seems that somewhere along the way, at least in the minds of some, it has come to be expected that the United States became responsible for caring for the poor and unsatisfied from every other country in the world.

So, it might be interesting to look at how our neighbors to the north and south treat this problem. We know Canada is a haven for immigration, right? Afterall, they became famous for being the place for draft-dodgers during the Vietnam War.

Ahh – but that was then, and this is now.

CBS News reported in 2004, regarding the approximately 5500 US war deserters up to that time:

War deserters from the US to Canada are now required to prove “they wouldn’t just be prosecuted for what they did -— they would be also be persecuted,” if they were deported to the US.

And more recently, Gregary Levy writes:

American soldiers are fleeing the Iraq war for Canada — and U.S. officials may be on their trail. North of the border is no longer the safe haven it was during the Vietnam era.

Ok. That’s fair enough. American war deserters aren’t Canada’s responsibility, anyway, and we don’t have an enormous problem with Canadians immigrating to the United States illegally. So, what about our southern border?

Well, it seems Mexico is all too happy to send American criminals back to the US, as we see here and here.

Strangely enough, other than criminals with arrest warrants, I wasn’t able to locate stories of illegal immigrants from the United States or Canada seeking refuge in Mexico, or of them being deported. There are plenty of stories, however, of people from poorer countries south of Mexico either seeking refuge in Mexico, or attempting to go through Mexico to points north. They’re probably welcomed with open arms, right?

Ummm….no.

The BBC recently reported:

Hundreds of illegal immigrants have been deported from Mexico after they became stranded when a train route through the country was closed down.

Heather MacDonald wrote a few years ago:

In 2002, a dozen American college students, in Mexico legally, participated peacefully in an environmental protest against a planned airport outside of Mexico City. They swiftly found themselves deported as law-breakers for interfering in Mexico’s internal affairs.

Allan Wall, of VDare has done several articles on human rights abuses along the southern border of Mexico, for example:

…(O)n January 4th, in Sonora, Mexico, seven Mexican Indians—Mexican citizens of non-European, indigenous origin—were mistaken for Guatemalans, detained by the INM (Mexican INS), then imprisoned for ten days and almost deported to Guatemala!

The detainees were from the state of Chiapas (which borders Guatemala). They had traveled by plane to Sonora (which borders Arizona) in order to work at a job they had already been contracted for. They were mistaken for Guatemalans by INM officials in the Hermosillo, Sonora airport…the Chiapans had ID—it just wasn’t accepted.

(…)

The seven detainees reported being ‘….ill-treated, insulted and threatened by Migration agents, who provided them with neither water nor food ….’ which, to add insult to injury, they had to pay for themselves.

Wall also lists three more incidents publicized in Mexico here:

1. In Chiapas a few months back, local police were chasing Guatemalan illegal aliens. They shot an illegal and his Mexican smuggler (both lived). Fifteen illegal aliens were detained. (Balean policies a inmigrantes guatemaltecos Siglo, Feb. 13th, 2006)

2. In a tragic accident in April, 80-85 Central American illegal aliens were riding in a truck which crashed into a trailer (both drivers and some of the illegals fled the scene). Known casualties: 9 of the illegal aliens died, 16 were wounded. (Mueren nueve indocumentados en acidente en Chiapas, 26 April 2006, Universal)

3. A 15 year old illegal immigrant girl from El Salvador arrived to a Mexican metropolitan area and wound up working as a prostitute. Her pimps kept control of her by threatening to report her illegal status if she didn’t do what they said. Finally, she was fed up with her harsh treatment and sexual abuse. She escaped and turned herself into immigration authorities. The immigration authorities imprisoned her, incommunicado, in a cell in the basement of a government building, with a man as her roommate. The press didn’t discover it for two months. (Siglo — Mantienen incomunicada a una salvadoreña By Luis Alberto Morales Cortés, April 30th, 2006)

Mr. Wall sums up the hypocricy of the current illegal immigration issue very well in his 2006 article:

Even high-ranking Mexicans are forced to admit that its government, as represented by President Fox, is hypocritical. Two prominent Mexican officials from its Human Rights Commission acknowledged that in dealing with illegal migrants, the Mexico uses some of the same methods it has criticized the United States for employing. Commission president Jose Luis Soberanes admitted that: “One of the saddest national failings on immigration issues is the contradiction in demanding that the North [the U.S.] respect migrants’ rights, which we are not capable of guaranteeing in the South.”

And Heather MacDonald aptly asks and answers the question that is on a lot of our minds: “What Would Mexico Do with Protesting Illegals? Deport them on the spot.”