Ruben Navarrette: Drugs, guns and immigrant

[0utrider]

As a Mexican-American, nothing tends to make me feel less Mexican and more American than spending time with an official of the Mexican government.
It's been my experience over many years of interviewing and writing about these "Mexicrats" that most come from the privileged class with life experiences far removed from those of average Mexicans and even further removed from the millions of Mexicans who head north in search of better lives. As such, these officials hearken back to an earlier generation of dignitaries who couldn't have cared less about people like my grandfather who came to this country as a young boy. If there is a power struggle going on in Mexico between haves and have-nots, as many people suggest is the case, then I'm rooting for the latter.


And so, it's not often that I find a Mexican official who seems fair, reasonable and insightful. Maria de los Remedios Gomez Arnau, the newly installed Mexican consul general in San Diego, fits the bill.
A few weeks ago, Gomez met with the editorial board of The San Diego Union-Tribune. Topics of discussion included recent outbreaks of violence along the border, the drug war, trade and -- oh yes -- immigration. There was plenty of agreement, but also areas where we disagreed. In the end, people from different countries will see the world differently.
While stressing the "interconnection" of the United States and Mexico and the fact that there are two sides to every issue confronting the two countries, Gomez framed immigration as a global labor supply issue.
"We need to recognize," she said, "both that there are migrant workers needed here in the U.S. labor market while Mexico, and other countries that participate in the U.S. labor market, have the supply of those workers whether they are at the professional level or at other lower- and medium-skill levels."
She was right to point out that there are not enough channels for people to come to the United States legally from Mexico because, in the case of low-skilled workers, there are "no visas for the kinds of jobs that they perform."
But the consul general went a little far when, in making that point, she insisted that these workers "can't be here working documented" because the legal channels are not available. Notice how quickly she absolved the individual of any responsibility for breaking the law? These people can't be here legally, so they have to be here illegally.
When asked about whether Mexico believed it too had a responsibility to help police the border and prevent its citizens from crossing into the United States without proper documents, Gomez claimed that the Mexican government was working with federal, state and local officials to provide "an overview of the border" and that it is "aware that, in immigration and other issues that have bilateral impact, there is a joint responsibility."
Take that with a grain of salt. Mexican officials have always made an effort to point out that their country isn't Cuba, and that they're not about to prevent their people from leaving if that's what they choose to do any more than the U.S. government would try to stop its citizens from moving to Mexico or Canada.
Ironically, there is one commodity streaming into Mexico that Mexican officials desperately want to keep out, and they're asking the United States to help them in that effort -- shipments of illegal arms that are being imported by drug cartels.
Again, this is an issue of supply and demand. Clearly, the United States -- if it remains committed to the drug war -- has an interest in keeping these weapons out of the hands of people who could use them to kill U.S. drug agents. But Mexico is hardly in a position to ask the United States to help stop the export of guns when it won't lift a finger to stop the export of migrants.
For the record, the United States government has launched a new effort to battle gun-smuggling along the U.S.-Mexico border. But -- as long as Mexican drug cartels are demanding guns, and, for that matter, as long as American drug customers are demanding contraband -- the supply is likely to be there.
Now where have we heard that before?
The United States and Mexico have always had a shared border. And now, as fate would have it, they have a shared empathy.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...2/1002/OPINION