Our "Friend" to the south: even as it seals off its own southern border, the Mexican government seeks the UN's help in tearing down its border with the United States. (Mexico).

On November 8th, Mexico's representative on the UN Security Council joined the 150 vote to authorize using force against Iraq. Less than 24 hours earlier, the Mexican government asked the UN to intervene against the United States. This juxtaposition of events, unnoticed by the mainstream media, illustrates the deviousness of our supposed friend to the south -- and the suicidal nature of the Bush administration's efforts to empower the UN.

According to Mexico's Notimex news service, the Mexican Senate filed a formal complaint with the UN Human Rights Commission accusing the U.S. of arbitrarily detaining individuals referred to as migrants from Mexico. "We know there were arbitrary detentions because [suspects] were denied the right to have access to legal counsel," complained Sadot Sanchez, president of the Mexican Senate's Human Rights Committee. Accusing the U.S. of violating the "human rights" of Mexicans under the pretext of fighting terrorism, Sanchez declared: "We cannot allow migration to be associated with delinquency."

Mr. Sanchez -- like most Mexican officials, many U.S. officials, and our mainstream media -- dishonestly uses the neutral term "migrants" to refer to Mexicans violating our nation's immigration laws. The correct term, of course, would be either "illegal immigrants" or "illegal aliens." It is entirely proper and legal to detain and deport such people from our nation. The Mexican government understands this principle and implements it quite vigorously on its own southern border.

Beginning in July 2001, reported the August 13, 2001 Washington Times, Mexican authorities started "clamping down on the hundreds of thousands of Central Americans crossing Mexico's southern border." The Mexican police and military stepped up patrols along the 600-mile jungle-covered border with Guatemala and Belize, and threw up a similar barricade across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the narrowest part of Mexico. During the year 2000, Mexican officials deported 150,000 Central American immigrants.

According to Felipe de Jesus Preciado, head of the Mexican migration service, "the flow of Central American migrants north is a national security problem for Mexico. It wouldn't be such a big problem if they were getting through to the U.S., but they get stuck and hang around in the frontier cities making trouble, sleeping in the streets with no money." Of course, the flood of illegal aliens presents national security problems for the United States. But from Mexico's perspective, they are entitled to seal their southern border, while America supposedly has a moral responsibility to absorb all the illegal aliens Mexico cares to sent northward.

Crime Haven

While Mexico is generally eager to send its nationals across our border, there are exceptions. Prosecutors and police officials from several border states have learned that Mexico is almost always unwilling to extradite people who committed crimes in the United States.