if (preg_match('/ According to BBC, Fox condemned the proposal saying it is too focused on securing the border and does not acknowledge the "enormous contribution" that Mexican workers make to the US economy. Perhaps Presidente Fox has a point. Maybe the new fence could be reconfigured and redesigned with a more welcoming ambiance. Perhaps if the United States could celebrate the regular arrival of Mexican immigrants in a more affirming manner. After all, in the past, servants, slaves and hobos were always required to enter a home by way of the back door. By forcing so many Mexicans to enter the United States by way of the "back door" we have been treating them as somehow inferior to the rest of us. By all means, Mr. Fox, let us recognize the "enormous contribution" that Mexican workers make to the US economy by treating them as equals. Let us, with this new fence, and perhaps even more of it, close off the back door completely! Let us vow to never again degrade, demean and insult our neighbors to the south by forcing them to shuffle, bow and scrape their way into our national house. I suggest that the new wall be designated the "American/Mexican Welcome Wall." Large signs should be erected facing Mexico at regular intervals along the wall stating (in both English and Spanish), We are grateful for your contributions to the economy of the United States. We want to make you feel welcome and appreciated. Accordingly, we invite and ecourage you to enter our house through the front door so that we may receive you with honor. Please follow the arrows to the nearest open door where we will just run a few checks to affirm that you are, in fact, willing and able to make a positive contribution to our economy. We will also, of course, check your criminal record and make sure that you are not carrying any illegal drugs, weapons, explosives or nuclear devices. America is and always has been the 'Land of the free and the home of the brave.' If you are brave enough to enter through the front door we will welcome you, honor you and grant you the freedom of our home. Viva Mexico! Viva Estados Unidos! If that won't satisfy Presidente Fox, I have no idea what will!
"A sinister cabal of superior writers."
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Article comments
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There was a time I would have -- and did -- argue this issue writing that America is a nation of immigrants and needs the labor force since so many Americans refuse so many jobs or are perfectly content taking welfare.
However, your commentary is written in a fair enough way that this is not an adequate or appropriate response.
My difference of opinion is one I have made before. Ellis Island worked well for 19th and early 20th c immigrants. There was a place and time for interviews and investigations.
The Bush Wall is probably racially oriented and a sop for the isolationist, Republican constituency. Still it could be fair if there were, yes, front doors for people who still want to be in our troubled country. Ellis Islands of the deserts and mountains and even California.
The problem, however, is that some of the worst people I have met along the border are the US Border Patrol and Customs. The Mexican equivalents are often thorough, usually polite. The Americans specialize in rudeness, threats, obnoxiousness and a total disregard and ignorance of the US Constitution. One threatened me with arrest for bringing my cardiac medications over the border including lifesaving nitrates. Another sidled up to ask if I "had ever been in trouble with the law".
I asked if he had ever read the 5th Amendment (no way I would admit to him that I had never been in trouble with the law). Then I began to shout for his supervisor.
Mexican soldiers and officials usually say "Gracias, Señor" after their search.
We have problems along the border and isolationism is not the answer. It is too simple and the answer is not simple. Not that I know what it is.
2 - Mark Edward Manning
Hehe, great satirical article, Bird.
Democrats and Republicans alike can lay the foundations for this "Welcome Wall," as both welcome unchecked illegal immigration into the country.
3 - Moe
If I was George Bush I'd have two words for Vincente Fox.
Those two words?
"Fuck off."
4 - Christopher Rose
It's a statistical if little known fact that the USA is not the most free country country in the world, nor, without in any way implying that Americans lack courage, do I particularly consider it the land of the brave either. I hope that this will be understood in the way I meant it and not as mindless rhetoric...
5 - Bliffle
If GWB needed to invade a foreign country to satisfy his mojo it should have been Mexico instead of Iraq. Mexico is poor because it has one of the worst governments known to man. The government is corrupt and ruled by nepotism. If we could open the borders the other way, so that american businessmen could invest and prosper and create jobs the problems would be largely solved. But we cannot. Ask any guy who sees the opportunities in Mexico and has tried to establish a business. The few favored families will sieze your assets and if you object you will be thrown in jail indefinetly. Most of us who have tried to create businesses in Mexico can attest to this.
Mexico is a wonderful country. It can sustain itself with food and it has many valuable material resources, but it's greatest asset is it's people who are intelligent, hard working and have good family values. They need to be unleashed from the horrible burden of the malevolent government that holds them down.
Someday Mexico will be freed and then you will see the flowering of a country and a people that will take your breath away. Until then, I suppose we will engage in fruitless wars 10,000 miles away to "bring democracy" to people who don't care while we neglect the good people who are ready right now to benefit from freedom.
6 - No Longer On Welfare
Bliffie: The Mexican government is corrupt and ruled by nepotism.
And our country is what?
7 - RedTard
"And our country is what?"
Neither of those. Trying to compare corruption in Mexico to that in the US just serves to demonstrate one's ignorance.
I assume you are part of the left since this post is both out of touch with reality and anti-American.
8 - No Longer On Welfare
How many examples of nepotism need Bush demonstrate? As far as our government being corrupt, I point to both parties on that issue. Have you ever heard of a lobbyist? What is it exactly that you think they do? By the way, who was on Cheney's energy commision? Bush is steering this country in the wrong direction. While I'm trying to tell him he made a wrong turn, you're busy giving him road head. If you could quit bobbing for a minute you would buckle up like me because this dipshit is liable to crash.
9 - Bliffle
Yes, sadly, Bush seems to admire such stunted pseudo-feudal states, possibly because he is the child of privilege himself. He is NOT really a successful self-made businessman: all his businesses failed and he was bailed out by his family. He was not even a success in baseball, where a team owner has a government approved monopoly. He fired Sammy Sosa after all. But the baseball deal gave him a chance to strut around on the stage while his father secured favorable behind-the-scenes deals for the real brains behind the team.
10 - Mark Edward Manning
"If I was George Bush I'd have two words for Vincente Fox: Fuck off."
The strange thing about Fox is, he was on our side during the Latin American trade negotiations. The fact that Hugo Chavez whined about him (like the baby the Chavez is) was telling. But Fox is like any other Mexican president in thinking he has the right to flood the U.S. with his excess population.
America has the right to protect itself against a tide of illegal immigrants - especially during a time of heightened terrorism alerts.
11 - RogerMDillon
"America has the right to protect itself against a tide of illegal immigrants - especially during a time of heightened terrorism alerts."
They why have we waited so long? Doesn't the president remember 9/11? Oh, wait. Bush gets a pass on everything. My mistake.
Welfare, that's a sweet spanking you gave Retard.
12 - michael mex
IT IS UNFORTUNATE TO SEE THAT HATRED,GREED AND RACISM ARE STILL SO ALIVE AND WELL IN THE GOVERNMENT,CORPORATACRACY AND SOME OF THE BRAINDEAD PEOPLE WHO ARE TOLD WHAT TO THINK BY THE MEDIA.THOSE OF YOU WHO CAN ADD 1 PLUS 1 AND COME UP WITH 2, PLEASE READ THE BOOK "CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN" AND MAYBE YOU CAN GET A CLUE ABOUT WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON IN THIS WORLD.AGAIN UNFORTUNATELY SOME OF YOU WILL STILL CHOOSE HATE OVER LOVE THY NEIGHBOR.(YOUR LOSS)I PRAY FOR YOUR SOUL.
TO THE WRITE OF THIS ARTICLE.I PITY YOUR PITIFULL ATTEMPT TO MASK YOUR BIGOTRY. IF YOU ARE GOING TO WRITE A SATYRICAL ARTICLE ,YOU SHOULD HAVE WRITTEN ONE ABOUT BUILDING A WELCOMING WALL ON THE CANADIAN BORDER.
13 - Teri
With the risk of terrorists entering into US, I agree with securing our borders and if it means a wall then so be it. How can the mexican president get upset with a wall after all its our country and we have every right to put up a wall on our side of the border within US boundery, its our right to do so. I find it laughable Fox saying its shameful for us to want to protect our own couuntry. When he is incouraging illegals which I find shameful.
14 - Roscoe Collins
Listen if you think George bush is the problem of our energy proble. gas prices are high because of the growing chinese and indian economies.
The economy was great as Bush first entered the office. but what happened that badly hurt the economy? uhhh.... 9/11
Welfare you need to get a clue! Russian, Turkish, British, German and more government all said that saddam had weapons of mass destruction. He has committed many crimes against humanity and needed to be removed from power.
It is so ignorant for people to think that even though we are most powerful government in the world and still we cant help a people with an evil dictator! he may not have had it i admit but even if theres the slightest evidence he does have it you gotta do something. you cant trust that psycopath with weapons of mass destruction.
15 - MCH
"...he may not have had it i admit but even if theres the slightest evidence he does have it you gotta do something..."
That "something" has cost 2,300 brave soldiers their lives, and another 17,000 serious injury. And of course, it's much easier to write about "doing something" than it is to actually take the action of doing it.
16 - Bliffle
"Mexico's President, Vicente Fox, has called American plans to extend the security fence along the Mexican border, "Shameful.""
It's Fox who should be ashamed for allowing the Iron Grip of mexicos influential families to dominate mexicos economy, to the detriment of mexicos citizens and now to the detriment of the US. All Fox is doing is exporting his economic failures and the economic failures of his corrupt predecessors, which he apparently endorses.
17 - why
*
Got no card so I got no soul
Life is prison no parole no control
Tha jura got my number on a wire tap
Cuz i jack for similac fuk a cadillac survive
One motive no hope cuz every sidewalk I walk is like a tightrope
Yes I know my deadline sire, its when my life expires
So I'm sending paper south under the barbed wire
The mother of my child will lose her mind at my grave
Its my life or their life so call it a free trade
"Por vida" and our name up on tha stall
I took a death trip when I tried to cross the white wall
Walk unseen past tha graves and the gates
Born without a face, one motive no hope
I tried to look back to my past long lost
A blood donor to tha land owner holocaust
Pops heart stopped, in came tha air drop
Flooded the trench he couldnt shake the toxic rock
Maize was all we needed to sustain
Now her golden skin burns, insecticide rains
Ya down with ddt, yeah you know me
Rapped for the grapes, profit for the bourgeois
War tape boomin path is luminoso
I'm headed north like my name was kid cisco
To survive one motive no hope
Its hard to breathe with Wilson's hand around my throat
Trangled and mangled another ss curtain call
When i tried to cross tha white wall
Walk unseen past the graves and the gates
Born without a face
You say, fortify, reaction, you divide
You say, fortify, reaction reaction
*rage against the machine- without a face
18 - Duke of Earl
A study by the US government (GAO) last summer, while the Senate sought to figure out some response to the House anti-immigration legislation proposals, discovered that legalizing undocumented migrants would represent a huge windfall of funds in the next ten years, enough to stabilize social security and pay off the war, due to taxes that would be collected as a result. In addition, legalization would lead to higher wages and more consumption by 11 million people, not a small consumer market. My point is that the xenophobia about the wash of Mexicans (one half the undocumented, but most of the border-jumpers; a majority of those here illegally overstay their visas, not by crossing on foot) comes from a general homeland insecurity that are the result of twenty years of immigration law incompetence--but what people do not generally appreciate is that this lack of legislative coherence is intentional; people with power/money and the legislators they finance want to be able to exploit our panic about borderlessness, but they do not want to arrest cheap labor or the people who use it. Even the border patrol does not stop crossers; it just teaches them they are (in our eyes) criminals and should not expect rights. The effect is that they will work for less. It is all about labor price, money; nthose who take the burden of immigration, social services, hospitals, schools, police, neighborhoods, they do not benefit, nor are they subsidized by those who do. The real problem is the disconnect between those who benefit (and who could care less about services for, or neighborhoods of, the less wealthy) and those who suffer, from unregulated migration. So it is not about Mexicans, Fox, Bush, or Washington stupidity. If you want to understand the problem, follow the money trail. You will see that all that money that should be paid in taxes, is going into private pockets, as we feed our addiction to cheap labor.
19 - Duke of Earl
PS The only people who will benefit from this partial wall will be the coyotes, people smugglers. They can charge more, people will have to stay longer to pay them off, and fewer will return as a result. So a wall will have the effect of making no fewer people come here, just pay more for the opportunity, and will have the effect of keeping more people staying here. If that seems counter-productive, well that is because IT IS. The wall is all about symbolism and politics, but it is not going to stop anything--it will be another governmental waste of money, and probably will be subcontracted to undocumenteds to build it--with the buddies of the local politico keeping the difference, minus the hefty campaign contributions. Let us all see clearly that the wall is a smoke screen.
20 - abad
what do you know about "the Guadalupe Hidalgo treat"? yes that was the document that USA and Mexicans have filled after Mexico lost 2/3 parts of their territory due to a war (to Mexicans) a purchase ( to USA )do you have an idea how many illegals are in Irak deffending the usa soverinity? what the statue of the liberty says? "bring us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses" it doen't say "unless they're from Mexico"
21 - BizMARKie
"Listen if you think George bush is the problem of our energy proble. gas prices are high because of the growing chinese and indian economies.
The economy was great as Bush first entered the office. but what happened that badly hurt the economy? uhhh.... 9/11 "
Uh...WRONG
What hurt the economy was Bush handing back Clinton's 219 Billion Dollar surplus during a good economy and crowding out investment spending, all the while the Federal Reserve had to raise the interest rate (which is why the housing industry has bottomed out now) in order to combat inflation. The economy was doomed whether 9/11 had happened or not. Plus that motherfucker was on vacation anyway.
22 - Kyle
we need a wall....these stupid beaners are ruining america
23 - James
I think we need to set up a wall with 50 caliber machine guns and shoot anyone who tries to cross the border illegally. Immigration in this country is a joke and if i were presidetn there wouldn't be one illegal immigrant in this country
24 - KOOLAID
U FUKING WHITE PEOPLE ARE FUKING HATERS!!!!!!!
VIVA MEXICO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
25 - xyz
I don't know what is wrong with an electrified fence? 50,000 volts will be a great deterrent.
Even an animal will figure out eventually that going near the fence isn't a good idea and human beings are at least as smart as animals.