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A Step on the Slippery Slope to Merger with Mexico

By Diana Hull, Ph.D.

Most of the 955,310 people who were apprehended last year trying to cross our unprotected southern border were Mexicans. The number who got through is anybody's guess, but add them to the estimated 7 to 11 million illegal aliens already here. Oddly, the Mexican government seems more concerned about the welfare of its citizens once they flee their own country than while they are enduring the hardships of life at home, without either jobs or a "safety net." In Mexico the poor are a burden and could stimulate unrest, but once in the United States, they become a precious asset to their government.

Mexico wants its citizens to have unlimited access to work and a better quality of life in the United States, rather than trying to provide these benefits in Mexico. Not satisfied with $11 billion yearly in remittances that immigrants send home to their families, the government pushes for the unrestricted transport of goods and people across a new transnational zone that replaces the border between our two countries.

Part of Mexico's long-range plan for virtual merger with its rich northern neighbor-and on its own terms-is the Matricular Consular Card. Mexico's views about immigrants' rights in the US are expressed repeatedly in its media by President Vicente Fox, cabinet members and other elites, and to US mass immigration supporters like the National Council of La Raza. These bold plans look forward to a time, in the not too distant future, when Mexico will play the dominant role in the relationship between us, and soon California will be populated in large part by Hispanics.

That is where the demographic train is heading. Because of mass immigration, California added more than half a million people last year alone and the Census Bureau said that in 2002, fifty-one percent of the babies born in California were Latino, mostly from Mexico.

The US Congress has chosen not to interfere effectively with this unselected tidal wave of people that brings not only cheap labor for farms and factories, but vans full of drugs, outlaw gangs and common thieves who meld with those seeking jobs in the strawberry fields. With a huge base in this one state alone, its no wonder the Mexican government is always seeking new ways to benefit even more from this northward migration.

For the Mexican government, the question has always been, "how can we use this bonanza to our advantage?" Currently they are working hard for US government entities and private business to accept this Mexico-issued identity card, called the Matricular Consular. It is available to Mexican nationals through consulates all over the country, and the card is especially useful to immigrants who are in the US illegally.

Why is Mexico so determined to have this card accepted? Is it only to "advantage" undocumented immigrants with some arguably valuable paper that confers an unverifiable identity, with a name and photograph affixed to it, for $29.00? Or does it have more to do with strengthening Mexico's grip on its expatriate citizens-making it easier to manipulate tens of millions of Mexican nationals and immigrants, no matter what their status, and even Mexican-American citizens, many of whom could be persuaded to maintain their primarily loyalty to Mexico?

Even now all of these groups, some because of dual citizenship, can vote in Mexican elections. Remember the campaigning of Mexican candidates in Los Angeles during their last election cycle? And, when able to vote in US elections, these same groups could do so in ways that protect the interests of Mexico. Juan Hernandez, a Texas born Mexican-American and a dual citizen, is in President Fox's cabinet. According to journalist John Fonte, Hernandez told Nightline that they are betting that US citizens of Mexican heritage will always think "Mexico first."

Allan Wall, an American writer who lives in Mexico full time, believes that Vicente Fox has fully explained his intention to govern not only Mexican nationals in the US, but all US citizens of Mexican ancestry. And he views the US Hispanic vote as a tool of Mexican foreign policy. But how can Mexico influence immigrants and keep them "in the fold" unless they know who they are? One advantage of the Matricular Consular Card is that it gives the Mexican government a database to use for these purposes.

Actually, if illegal aliens want an identity document that would make their lives easier, they could buy one of the ten million bogus passports, social security cards, birth certificates or driver's licenses that forensic document specialists estimate are manufactured each year. It's a one billion dollar a year industry. So why do illegal immigrants even need a Matricular Consular Card, instead of a readily-available fraudulent document that turns them immediately into de facto US citizens?

Of course, the Matricular card is only one of the ways that Mexico shows its support for Mexicans in the US and also tries to make sure they won't be deported. It also lobbies for driver's licenses and in-state tuition for illegal aliens. These bills have been presented to the California Legislature each session for several years, through the untiring efforts of the Latino Caucus, working closely with members of the Mexican Consulate and Mexican government officials. And this effort is duplicated in many other states. As of June 8th the California legislature approved the acceptance of the Matricular Consular Card as a legal form of identification, and it now awaits consideration by the California Senate's Public Safety Committee.

Opponents of the Matricular card claim it is another direct attempt by the Mexican government to give their nationals, living in the US illegally, the freedom of action and US benefits intended only for legal residents. They are particularly irate because they say the information the card contains is so unreliable-that no real proof of identity is required to ensure the applicant is the person he or she is claiming to be. With no proof of identity and no US authorization for issuance, the card undermines our own visa process, they claim, and is an "end run" on US efforts to strengthen security.

Another and more accepted interpretation of Mexico's motives in offering this card is that after 9/11, lawmakers became reluctant to approve another "good as promised" amnesty to millions of illegals, modeled after the amnesty of 1986. Opponents of the card say it improperly provides for amnesty incrementally, stealthily expanding the right to obtain a driver's license, a legal bank account and eligibility for social security.

However, the card's value is entirely dependent on government and private entities' accepting it-and this is how Mexico's plan can be stopped. Last month Governor Bill Owens of Colorado signed into law a bill banning all agencies and municipalities in his state from accepting foreign-issued identification such as the Matricular Consular Cards. ("Secure and Verifiable Identity Document Act.") His was the first state to outlaw it.

This action contradicted the order of Denver mayor Wellington Webb who had ordered various city and county departments to accept it. Many other cities had followed suit at the urging of Mexican Consulates all over the country.

The same action to approve was taken on April 30th by the US Treasury Department, whose new regulations would allow banking corporations to use the Matricular Consular Card to open accounts for illegal aliens. Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement point out the absurdity of one federal agency being charged with deporting illegal aliens, while another federal agency is allowing them to open bank accounts.

A member of the California Assemby who voted for approving the card did so, she said, to assist law enforcement officials trying to identify detained foreign nationals, without any papers. Allan Wall, writing in the Winter 2002 Social Contract , says this is the real reason for issuing the cards-to make the deportation of illegal aliens a thing of the past, a very high priority for President Fox. The cards, Wall believes, are a part of "an organized campaign to subvert US immigration laws, impede the assimilation of immigrants and cultivate the existence of a vast pro-Mexican lobby in the United States." He says "this effort has scarcely begun, but is already bearing fruit" and Americans need to be aware of it. "What is at stake here," says Wall, "is nothing less than American sovereignty."

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