Lets take a step back for a moment and look at Mexico and its relationship with the United States. Like many throughout the rest of the developing world, a lot of people in Mexico would like to migrate to the United States. Trump’s opposition to their would-be immigration is the basis for much resistance and fear. It’s not just impoverished citizens who are chagrined, the Mexican government is upset at us as well.
Over the years, the expectation has developed wherein we should comply with their aspirations. Mexico is a de-facto 51st state. Prior to our acquisition of huge swaths of territory in 1848, that far exceeded the present boundaries of Mexico, we were essentially in the same territorial position as Mexicans now, creeping across their national boundaries a scant 168 years ago. Some centuries earlier, Spain laid claim to all this land from the indigenous peoples. The bottom line here is that on a tiny slice of the overall historical scale, we are all squatters. We are not more righteous than the Mexicans, the Mexicans, who’s ruling class is predominantly of European ethnicity, is not more righteous than the Spaniards, and there’s no way to defend the conquering Spaniards.
What defines Mexico and the United States in this instance is governance, not land. Transparency International rates Mexico at 123 of 176 on a scale that measures corruption (2016). The United States is 18 out of 176. Opportunity is intricately tied to corruption. Therein lies the problem. Mexicans understandably want a better playing field. The Mexican government is quite OK with this because the fruits of better opportunity, cash, are sent back across the border. That cash funds basic needs, alleviating some responsibility of the Mexican government, but some of that cash also finds it’s way into the corruption economy, another piece that many there are quite OK with. We are not OK with conditions that we have a stake in, but which we cannot govern.
Simple brute severance of the supply line will definitely not render the end-result we want. In order to break the standoff, why don’t we imagine for a moment what a move toward territorial unification would do. Many ethnic Mexicans in the southwest view the southwest states as squatters on their land anyway. We’ve just spent the past two-plus decades unifying our economies (NAFTA, legal, and illegal immigration). We do have many mutual interests, economic and actuarial.
Here’s how it might go: We say to Mexico, “you obviously think we should be tied much closer, that our land is your land, and we’ve quite often thought that your land is our land” (queue music). “You obviously want to shed some responsibility to your people since you keep facilitating them to cross our border. Exactly what territory and peoples do you really want to shed? The present border is offensive to you, the people on your side of the border would rather be on our side of the border under our governance, so lets draw a new territory.” That new territory, starting somewhat north of Mexico City, will belong to the peoples that live therein. We’ll take the burden of governance from you, give them a large measure self-governance that they want but also some added benefits and responsibilities that come with being a part of our share of the Americas, short of statehood.
Here at home, the open borders crowd would have a sudden new project of humanitarian embrace to keep them busy. Who knows, maybe the Cal-exit folks might like this concept as well and we could lump them into the deal without ceding everything to them, instant semi-autonomy for all. Culturally, at least for the millions of Mexican-Americans, they get to maintain a culture with more unified boundaries. We dispense with a large chuck of border and the related economic problems, and Mexico-proper gets to dispense with a lot of people they don’t seem to want to begin with.
I’m sure this is all a gross over-simplification when viewed according to current nation-state stasis, but historically, quite honestly, it isn’t all that far-fetched. The annexation might be a constructive solution to a situation that will otherwise eventually be resolved destructively, and that friends, is inevitable.
PS: A WSJ article emphasizes just how badly the Mexican people and their government want them to remain here.