On May 2nd, the Instituto Nacional de Migración (Mexican INS) expelled 18 Americans from Mexico. These expelled Americans had violated the terms of their Mexican visas by getting involved, albeit in a minor fashion, in Mexican politics – a definite no-no for foreigners in Mexico.
The Americans' offense was to participate in May Day marches in Mexico City and Guadalajara. The ones in Mexico City were college students, visiting with their professor from Washington State. They had joined a group protesting the expropriation of land near Mexico City for a new airport and were waving machetes with the other protestors. They might have gotten away with it, except that some of them were heard on the TV news shouting protest slogans in broken Spanish, which in turn caused Mexican journalists to express outrage.
The INM wasted no time. The offenses were committed on May 1st, and by the evening of May 2nd, the offending gringos were on their way back to the U.S.A., their Mexican visas revoked.
According to Javier Moctezuma, Mexican subsecretary of Population, Migration and Religious Affairs (part of the Interior Department), the Americans were kicked out because "they violated article 43 of the General Population Law......article 43 has been violated and the standard must be applied."
Article 43 of the General Law of Population (Ley General de Población) states that:
"The admission to the country of a foreigner obliges him to strictly comply with the conditions established for him in the immigration permit and the dispositions established by the respective laws."
As an El Universal article puts it, "as any foreigner, they should not meddle in national affairs."
Article 43 is fair. Mexico has a right to regulate its own immigration policy. Foreigners shouldn't meddle in Mexican affairs. And if they do, the Mexican government has every right to deport them.
For me this is not simply theoretical. I, after all, am an American living and working here in Mexico under a legal work permit. I strive to obey Mexican immigration law (and Mexican law in general). And if I don't, the Mexican government has every right to deport me as well.
What a contrast, though, when you look at the other side of the coin. The same Mexican government that expelled 18 Americans for meddling in Mexican politics is engaged in a massive and deliberate intervention in U.S. politics. But, unlike Mexico, the U.S. does absolutely nothing.
Mexico's intervention in U.S. politics goes way beyond a handful of college students waving machetes and chanting slogans. The Mexican government is engaged in a full-scale assault on the sovereignty of the United States of America, as it relates to immigration and assimilation policy, and the grooming of a Fifth Column of Mexican-American citizens who will carry out the policies of Mexico's government.
The Fox administration has made intervention in U.S. internal affairs a national priority. Just recently, Fox spoke on national TV of the U.S. "Hispanic vote" as a tool of Mexican interests.
(Americans of Mexican ancestry who love their country must find Fox's attitude particularly insulting).
On the very same day that 18 Americans were meddling in Mexican politics by participating in May Day marches, Vicente Fox was making a speech at the annual May Day ceremony.
In that speech, Fox continued to attack the U.S. Supreme Court decision which denied back pay to illegal aliens and promised to denounce the U.S. before the Interamerican Human Rights Court and the Organization of American States.
When Fox became president, he established a new cabinet position responsible for Mexicans "in the exterior" (i.e., in the U.S.) chaired by dual citizen Juan Hernandez. Hernandez makes regular forays into the United States to meddle in U.S. politics, agitating for, among other things, the inalienable right of illegal aliens to have driver's licenses.
Mexican consulates in the United States are in the vanguard of Mexican intervention. The 47 (!) Mexican consulates in our country function as more than simply diplomatic representatives of the Mexican government. They are active centers of Mexican intervention in U.S. internal affairs.
A prime example is the "consular card", distributed by consulates to illegal aliens with the express purpose of avoiding their deportation.
Take the career of only one Mexican diplomat: Teodoro Maus. From 1989 to 2001, with a brief hiatus, Maus was consul general at Atlanta, responsible for Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina. But Consul Maus functioned more like a colonial governor than the diplomatic representative of a foreign nation.
In 1995, Consul Maus criticized the declaration of English as the official language of Georgia. Later he demanded and received an apology from a radio talk show host who had suggested machine guns and guard towers be placed on the border.
In 1996, Maus joined with local Hispanic activists and turned his guns on Norman Bingham, Cobb County Board of Education Chairman. Bingham, you see, had the temerity to exercise his First Amendment free speech rights in Maus' fiefdom, by stating that Latino construction workers were "uneducated" and "probably illegal aliens". After demanding Bingham's ouster, Maus allowed the chairman to retain his position, after of course recanting and issuing a two-page apology. That same year Maus attacked a Smyrna, Georgia law requiring all commercial signs be in English.
In 1999, Maus agitated for the issuance of drivers' licenses to illegal aliens, but in this case the Georgia legislature failed to carry out the consul's edict. That same year, on a Spanish-language radio station, Consul Maus ordered local Hispanics to punish Georgia companies which, in Maus´ view, "mistreat or ignore Hispanic customers".
After stepping down as Consul General, Maus stayed in the U.S. as a private consultant and then president of the Mexican-American Business Chamber. Now Maus is slated to move to Washington as the Mexican government's liaison on environmental affairs. So you will be hearing more of him.
One need not necessarily be in agreement with the targets of Maus´ attacks to realize that something very dangerous is going on here - a foreign diplomat consistently meddling in American internal politics. This goes way beyond waving machetes and chanting slogans.
What is truly astonishing though, is that absolutely nothing is done about Mexican diplomatic meddling. No Mexican diplomat has been expelled yet for engaging in activities incompatible with diplomacy–they seem to know this and so we can expect even more brazen behavior in the future. They don't even have to hide what they do.
Certainly, during the Cold War Soviet diplomats carried out espionage and purveyed propaganda, but would never have dared such blatant public intervention in U.S. politics. Yet Mexican diplomats routinely get away with it - because our government lets them.
A government that was really concerned with national sovereignty would send meddling diplomats packing.
Just like the Mexican media said when the gringos were expelled – "any foreigner... should not meddle in national affairs."
Allan Wall is an American citizen who has lived and worked in Mexico since 1991. Presently employed as an English instructor, Allan has legal permission from the Mexican government to live and work in Mexico under the rubric of an FM-2 migration document. His VDARE.COM articles are archived here; his Frontpage.com articles are archived here. Allan Wall welcomes questions or comments (pro or con) at allan39@prodigy.net.mx.
May 07, 2002
