Unfettered Letters

Create jobs in Mexico

The American response to Mexican immigration is not only inadequate, but also offensive and xenophobic.

Building a fence is not going to stop Mexicans from coming to this country. The U.S. would be better served by encouraging government and private industry to seriously invest in Mexico and to create mechanisms to ensure that the Mexican people (rather than corrupt politicians) actually benefit from this foreign investment.

Put simply, Mexicans come to the U.S. in large part for jobs and to improve their economic status. If the U.S. truly wants to stop unlawful immigration, then it should create jobs with reasonable and competitive compensation schemes in Mexico so that the lure of economic freedom may be found in the Mexican citizens’ backyard, rather than across the border.

Such economic assistance seems a small price to pay, especially when we consider the billions of dollars spent on rebuilding Iraq, a country thousands of miles away and whose people largely reject the American presence.

Surely we can find the courage to help out a worthy neighbor and ally, especially when doing so would in the end serve our own interests as well.

Guadalupe Lopez
Kansas City

Mexican immigrants

Congratulations to Al Garza (national executive director of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps) for his comments (9/22, Opinion, “Securing the U.S. border is patriotism, not racism”).

At a 1997 meeting of La Raza in Chicago, President Ernesto Zedillo was wildly cheered when he stated, “I have proudly affirmed that the Mexican nation extends beyond the territory enclosed by its borders.”

Two years earlier, Zedillo informed a gathering in Dallas of U.S. citizens of Mexican descent, “You are Mexicans, Mexicans who live north of the border.” Did he, or did he not, imply, “You owe loyalty to Mexico, not Uncle Sam”? Is this Janet Murguia’s thinking also?

Ralph Wienke
Independence

Outsource prisons

Aliens flock to this country because they need the work. At the same time, America is overloading its prisons with more criminals than the system can handle. A partial solution could be realized by outsourcing contract prisons in Mexico. This would alleviate some of each problem.

It would be cheaper than incarcerating prisoners in this country and could also employ thousands of Mexicans. Perhaps the incentive to go to jail would be reduced as well. Naturally, the U.S. standards for prisons would have to be met.

Bob Patterson
Lee’s Summit

Silly election complaints

In response to the letter by Kent Comfort (12/6, “Unrest in Mexico”): First of all, who “sheepishly accepted” the results of the 2000 election? Six years later, liberals are still crying about it, as evidenced by Comfort’s letter.

The same Supreme Court that liberals have used for years to implement their agenda (which hasn’t won at the polls) made the final ruling. And recount after recount failed to show Gore winning Florida.

Funny how you don’t see many Republicans with court challenges when they lose elections, even though many of us suspect that there is plenty of fraud in the Kansas City and St. Louis areas that got Claire McCaskill elected.

Finally, if democracy is so great in Mexico, why are so many Mexicans trying to get into the United States?

Stop crying already! You guys won in November, and you’re still not happy.

Ross Balano
Kansas City

Unrest in Mexico

Apparently democracy is much healthier and more alive in Mexico than it is here in the United States.

When the Mexican people believe, or strongly suspect, that a presidential election is stolen, they do not passively accept the outcome and just grouse about it over coffee with friends. They take action and make it known far and wide that an injustice has occurred, and they strive to set it right.

The supposed president-elect has not been given a moment’s rest since the elections back in July of this year. His swearing in has not quieted the angry citizens.

That is the kind of democracy in action that our nation’s founders made it clear we are obligated to as citizens to protect and serve.

We should learn from our friends to the south. They no doubt were not impressed with how we sheepishly accepted the electoral conduct in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004.

Kent B. Comfort
Kansas City