So I went to Mexican immigration... (1 Viewer)

[SystemShock]

... To find out what papers I need to get Mexican green cards for my wife and son . The place was packed. A few 'Muricans, lots of Cubans, lots of Venezuelans, a few Salvadoreans, even one Indian.

The TV was set to a news channel, which, perhaps ironically, was showing the confrontations between Mexican riot police and a horde of people trying to breach the border from Guatemala into Chiapas, the first "caravan" of 2020, while the brand new National Guard was merely watching.

That segment was followed by the illustrious Mexican President, wearing 2 leis, a sarape, and holding a baton with color ribbons, boasting there are 4000 jobs in Chiapas and financial aid for Central Americans. Some indignant reporter shouted "what about jobs and financial aid for Mexicans?!?" After all, Chiapas is a poor State. The President was surprised by the question, he just replied "yeah, yeah" and went on with his tiresome populist message.

 

[SystemShock]

This thread is pretty great

I aim to please.

 

[BobE]

I aim to please.

and you did just that brother.

 

[SystemShock]

I agree.

Aside from the entertainment value though, I have always wondered about these caravans that make it to the US/Mexico border and why they weren't stopped from entering Mexico in the first place.

@SystemShock Have the Mexican authorities been trying to halt these caravans for a long time or is this a new thing? I can honestly say that I don't recall any reporting on it in the past or threads about it on the old PDB or EE.

Some are halted (that's when the rock throwing starts), some are not. People caught crossing the border not at a checkpoint are returned across the border without incident more times than not.

It really isn't about a caravan, but about individuals going through the process of entering México. The process is not that complicated, and the requirements are minimal.

If you decide to go to México right now, you can hop on a plane, land in MX, present your passport at immigration, and as long as you don't have more than $10,000 dlls cash on you (and this is a U.S. driven requirement, drug war and all), any produce, or your name pops up in any relation to any crime, you are in for 180 days. Or drive/walk across the border, and show your driver's license. Same deal.

For refugee type migrants, there are even some concessions. Occasionally, boats land on the Yucatán Peninsula from Cuba, Haiti, some with Africans instead of Cubans and Haitians... they are usually detained somewhere while a determination can be made, case by case type of deal. Anecdote: the detention facilities in my hometown had to be moved to a more prison-like setting because Cubans kept escaping

As I mentioned before, when these caravans started, there were small. Hearsay, but they were usually people who have been to the U.S. already or had family in the U.S. So it wasn't that big of a deal. And for the most part, they went through the immigration process.

 

[Archies Ghost]

This thread is rea

I aim to please.

This is an awesome thread.

 

[SystemShock]

I find it interesting how citizens of other countries feel about the illegal immigration problem. A different perspective that we don't hear a lot.

For me it isn't just about illegal immigration. It is about the disdain for Mexicans and Mexican laws that is exhibited by many of these immigrants.

 

[donato]

You do realize that one does not have to be Hispanic to live in Mexico, right?

He could be a Mexican of pure Norse descent and still Mexican.

Obviously. Those types of things are (to me) very rare in Mexico however. There are small pockets of such things in certain parts of the country. Again, I was basically trolling/fighting stupidity with stupidity.

 

[SystemShock]

white hispanic*

I am intentionally responding to ridiculousness with more ridiculousness. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.

Hispanic or not, whatever your intentions were, that was a very poor attempt at any sort of retort. You have to do better.

Speaking of white guilt, you obviously don't know about it (otherwise you would not have not thrown the word "Hispanic" at me), but there were plantations (haciendas) in México with slaves, Maya especially (henequén plantations in the Yucatán Peninsula). These plantations were own mostly (if not overwhelmingly) by Spaniards (the original Hispanics), but there were some German, French, and other Europeans who owned plantations as well. Did you know there was a war a decade or so after the U.S. civil war, la guerra de castas, in which plantation owners gave medals based on the number of Mayas killed?

I am sure I can trace my family's background to plantation owners in the Yucatán Peninsula . However, I don't feel guilty about any of it. I wasn't there, I didn't do it, and in the end, the Mayas won. And even though my grandparents tried really hard to make a racist out of me with their "junts però no barrejats" mantra (that's Catalán for "together but not mixed"), I see every person for who they are, not what they are.

That's not to say that México is this utopia of social justice, it hardly is.

As for the people of Central America and what's happening there, United Fruit Company wasn't Mexican, ifyouknowwhatImean. And yes, the Mexican cartels are now in C.A. , but they are not there doing México's bidding, although one can argue they are doing the U.S.'s bidding: the hunger for drugs in the U.S. is what created their business, the weapons they use overwhelmingly come from the U.S., and some of them were even trained by the U.S.

Anyway, no guilt here.