Reading John Brimelow’s recent post “Mexico: Do We Want to Import This?” reminded me of a funny story one of my students told me.

Maria had returned to Mexico for Christmas to visit her elderly parents. While driving to their house, a “policeman” signaled for her to pull over for speeding.

When Maria protested that she had been driving well under the speed limit, the “policeman” said, “Look, we can take care of this here or I can write you a ticket and you’ll have to spend all day in court dealing with it.”

Since Maria had been through this drill before, she handed him $20 and drove off.

A few kilometers down the road, another “policeman” stopped her for the same reason. “But I just paid an officer less than ten minutes ago,” Maria told him.

“Yes,” he replied, “but that was in Zone 10. Now you are in Zone 11.”