THE FIRST MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR

WHAT IT MEANS TO THE CURRENT IMMIGRATION DEBATE

By Jimmy King, NatParUSA Columnist

(4/4/2006)

The airwaves and newspapers have been filled lately with news of student protests and general unrest in response to HR 4437—the House bill which would make it a felony to be an illegal in the United States. There have been tens of thousands of pro-illegal supporters and illegals participating in these protests across the nation.

While most of the rationale given by the protestors to the media can be summed up by invoking the old canard, “we are honest, hardworking immigrants that just want a better life and do the jobs that Americans won’t do,” those that understand history know better.

Many of us are familiar with the Reconquista (“Reconquest”), a student organization called MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan or Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan), and the ongoing pandering to the illegals by members of our own government. The Reconquista is the erroneous belief by Mexicans that they are somehow entitled to reclaim land legally owned by the United States because of a spurious ancestral claim. MEChA is an organization found on many college and university campuses and serves to indoctrinate and recruit from the student body those brown students to carry their banner; Lieutenant Governor of California Cruz Bustamante is a member. (Those of us that saw his political ads on television while running against Arnold Schwarzenegger for Governor saw him claiming to represent all Californians, but he was never seen unless surrounded by Mexicans. It is also notable that he did not speak out against the organization, despite its clearly pro-Mexican agenda.)

While popular opinion may have the whole Reconquista movement starting in the 1960s as an offshoot of the Civil Rights Movement, its roots go back to a point in history when the United States was still very young and the Western Hemisphere was relatively unsettled by any race or nation. The focal point during that time in history was the border tensions with Mexico--exacerbated by Mexico’s War with Texas and the American policy of Manifest Destiny. These tensions culminated in the Mexican-American War, which began in 1846 and was fought for two bloody years. The war ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848 (ratified without the contentious Section 10 that guaranteed Mexican land grants to Mexicans in the ceded territories) and our political borders with Mexico were set with the Treaty of La Mesilla AKA the Gadsen Purchase in 1854, the latter of which saw the purchase of over 45 million square miles of territory purchased from Mexico for 15 Million dollars (about 730 Million dollars today).

The two treaties that ended the Mexican-American War upset many Mexicans for reasons that are easy to understand: Mexico ceded over half of her territory to the United States and forever ended her domination in the politics of the Western Hemisphere. The lands that were ceded to the United States later became the states of California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah—not coincidentally the same area claimed by the adherents of Reconquista. (Their claim to Texas is a result of the annexation of the territory by the United States in 1836 in the Treaty of Velasco, which some Mexicans rejected because the Mexican delegate, General Santa Anna, was a prisoner-of-war of the United States at the time.)

While Mexicans may be taught in their schools that they have a claim to the lands legally owned by the United States, while the Chicano movement in the United States may teach the same through “Chicano Studies” courses in colleges and universities, and while their multimedia demagogues preach the same, our history and very law show their claims to be false.

Furthermore, Mexico is not a poor country by any means. It’s GDP per capita is the highest of any Latin American country, their economy is the tenth highest in the world, and almost half of the Latin American billionaires are Mexican. What makes them different? The country only brings in a little of 10% of its revenue from taxes compared to over 25% for the US. Mexico has more than enough capability of taking care of itself, if the richest Mexicans would allow their revenue to be taxed.

Where does the money come from that their government uses? Remittances. Remittances are the monies that are earned by the illegal aliens here in the US and sent to family members back in Mexico. In fact, those remittances have overtaken oil exports and the Mexican government’s primary source of revenue. With that money propping up his government, it is small wonder that President Fox does little to stem the tide of his countrymen entering the US illegally. Fox even changed the Mexican constitution, which has Article 33 which states “Foreigners may not in any manner involve themselves in the political affairs of the country(!),” to allow Mexicans living in the US to gain US citizenship while still retaining Mexican citizenship to allow the dual-citizens to vote for laws favorable to Mexico. Is there any doubt that Mexico and President Fox are not our friends?

This does not change the fact that our own government fails to protect our open southern border with Mexico despite all claims that our national security is a priority nor does it justify giving amnesty to the estimated 20 million and increasing lawbreakers currently here. What it should do is give us an understanding that those that come here “for a better life and to do the jobs that Americans won’t do” are doing by economic invasion what Mexico did not have the means to do in 1854. While we call them illegals for their illegal presence here on Sovereign American soil, they are thoroughly indoctrinated that the American Southwest was stolen from them and they are reclaiming it “rightfully”. They are a drain on our economy, a danger to our citizens, and they do not feel they need to assimilate—which means an increasingly bilingual America as their numbers swell.

The choice is ours America—either we can block their efforts at the border and at the voting booth or we can watch helplessly as California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Texas, and soon Main Street USA continue to turn into that same poverty-stricken, lawless, and corrupt wasteland teeming with brown masses destroying everything they see because some Mexican politician feels that sending them here is better than keeping his campaign promises and ensuring that his countrymen pay their fair share.