Doesn’t Mexican president Felipe Calderon have enough problems to deal with in Mexico without meddling in U.S. immigration policy? Of course not. For Calderon, just as for his predecessor, such meddling is a major priority.

Recently, Calderon instructed Mexican consulates in the U.S. to defend the image of Mexican migrants “to neutralize the strategy of confrontation and of discrimination.”

The presidente recently laid out a 7 point plan to carry this out. The consulates should:

1. Authenticate, through precise arguments, the enormous contribution that Mexicans make to the economy and society of the U.S.
2. Participate in public debates.
3. Go to the media.
4. Speak personally with non-governmental organizations.
5. Unify the discourse.
6. Defend Mexico and defend the Mexican government.
7. Utilize studies and evaluations of the U.S. government itself to defend the role that Mexican migrants play.

Mexican consulates already meddle, so these instructions should increase the meddling. Of course, as long as our own officials allow Mexican meddling, why should we suppose it will end?

More recently, Calderon was in Tijuana, to celebrate the “Day of the Migrant”. There, the Mexican president went on a rant about the ongoing U.S. debate on immigration (which he’d prefer we not have):

“Those who, due to ignorance, bad faith, political or economic interest, seek to present Mexican migrants, or Mexicans in general, as enemies of the United States, are wrong.”

It’s totally false, says Calderon, that Mexican migrants pose any kind of problem (economic, social security ) to the U.S.

“ This perception is not only erroneous, because it generates unnecessary tensions in the bilateral relationship, but also because it weakens the development of North America as a whole.”

Hmm, Calderon wouldn’t be referring to some kind of North American Union there, would he?

Calderon also spoke about a Mexican government plan to help Mexicans deported from the United States. Well, he’s on firmer ground there, though I don’t expect much from it .
Also present was Florencio Salazar, subsecretary of Population, Borders and Migratory Affairs, who compared migration to humidity , because
“it can be stopped temporarily, but it will arrive to its destiny with time.”

And, Cecilia Romero, Commissioner of the INM (National Migration Institute, the Mexican immigration bureaucracy) says the Mexican government is working to get rid of the “black legend” that Mexico mistreats migrants from other countries.

Calderon also discussed the “Paisano” program”, which is designed to help Mexicans (who live in the U.S.) who visit Mexico at Christmastime. Calderon said he wouldn’t tolerate “acts of corruption, swindles, abuses or humiliations ” of Mexicans returning for Christmas. Yes, that goes on, as Mexicans (living in the U.S) are shaken down for money by corrupt Mexican officials when they go to visit Mexico. [ Debilitan comentarios racistas relación México-EU: Calderon Sergio Javier Jiménez, El Universal, Dec. 17th, 2007]

To put Calderon’s comments in context, check out this article from the Arizona Republic, entitled “Holiday Visit to Mexico Becomes a One-Way Trip”. [By Daniel Gonzalez, December 18, 2007]It reports that many illegal aliens are taking advantage of the season to leave Arizona and return to Mexico permanently.

For the human interest angle, the article focuses on the Franco family. Both Mr. And Mrs. Franco were working illegally (originally they overstayed their visas, by the way) but recently lost their work.

So the article tells how the Francos are returning to Mexico, in two vehicles. Mr. Franco is driving an extended cab Ford F-150 pickup, carrying their refrigerator, air conditioner, TV and microwave, and the 3 kids (#3 is an anchor baby). The second vehicle, a Dodge minivan, is piloted by Mrs. Franco and carries clothes, toys household goods and suitcases on the roof.
In an effort to tug on our heartstrings, the the article ends thusly:

What did they plan to do for work in Mexico?

Jorge (Franco) shook his head. He didn’t know. Then, after clearing immigration and customs, the couple climbed back inside the pickup and the minivan and drove slowly back onto the highway, headed south.

This frustrated-novelist-style ending is, I suppose, designed to make us feel guilty about illegal aliens leaving the country.But I have a different response:

“Excuse me, isn’t this President Calderon’s problem ?”

I will be a guest on the Rick Adams talk radio show tonight (Tuesday) evening at 8 pm PST, 10 pm CST, 11pm EST.

We will definitely talk about the crazy immigration problems in Phoenix, Arizona, and there will be plenty of time to talk about H-1B if some of you express an interest by calling in.

To listen to the show, go to this page and click the “listen live” link,

Uncensored Radio Free America

Host: Rick Adams

Call-in Number: 800-313-9443

Veteran talk show host Rick Adams, “The Radio Avenger” brings his years of experience to the issues that concern all Americans. Don’t miss Rick’s take on the news of the day

If you miss the show you can listen to it by using the archive.

Jim Gilchrist, who surprised everyone by endorsing Mike Huckabee recently, is having sober second thoughts.

Minuteman reconsiders Huckabee endorsement
Gilchrist discovers candidate favors giving status to illegals within days
Posted: December 18, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist says he will have to reconsider his endorsement of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee after learning the Republican presidential candidate favors allowing illegal aliens to wait only days to receive documents allowing re-entry into the U.S.

In a Dec. 9 Fox News interview, just two days before Gilchrist’s endorsement, Huckabee was questioned by host Chris Wallace about an apparent contradiction between statements last year that he preferred a pathway to citizenship and his current plan. On his campaign website, Huckabee outlines a proposal that would require illegal aliens to repatriate and get on the back of the line, which could mean years for re-entry into the United States.

Huckabee insisted there is no discrepancy, specifying that “the pathway to get back here legally doesn’t take years. It would take days, maybe weeks, and then people could come back in the workforce.”

Asked by WND to respond, Gilchrist backtracked, admitting he may have been mistaken in his initial assumptions about the repatriation provisions of Huckabee’s “Secure America Plan.”

In effect, he’s going to stop illegal immigration by making illegals legal. This is just another version of what I called “Mike Pence’s Blockbuster Plan.” in 2006. The waiting time for actual visas, assuming that an unskilled laborer could get a visa, is an example of the inefficiency of government. Government is inefficient, as in the following Jay Leno joke: 

You read about all these terrorists - most of them came here legally, but they hung around on these expired visas, some for as long as 10-15 years.

Now, compare that to Blockbuster: you’re two days late with a video and those people are all over you. Let’s put Blockbuster in charge of immigration.

But if you try to speed up the enforcement parts of government by privatizing them, you get either too little enforcement, (de facto amnesty,) or too much–you wouldn’t want Blockbuster to take over issuing traffic tickets, they’d be giving them to everyone. You would get free popcorn after your third one, but still…

And the bottom line is that Huckabee is crazy about illegals.

This is something Huckabee  told  Jake Tapper of ABC

“If your government at the federal government is so incompetent that it fails to secure the border, you don’t then grind your heel into the face of a 6-year-old child over it. That’s not what this country does. We’re a better country than that. Now, if that causes people to say, ‘Well, I’m not going to vote for him,’ fine. There are plenty of candidates out there who I guess would grind their heel in the face of a 6-year-old child. Not me.”

A Democratic blogger, (who was never going to vote for Huckabee, of course,) praised this language and said

His choice of language is remarkable, visceral and highly effective. The imagery of “grinding your heel into the face of a 6-year-old child” is stunning — and can really make reflexive xenophobes at least pause.

It makes this “reflexive xenophobe” wonder if Huckabee is  getting a little feverish on this issue. And can he name the candidates who would grind their heels into the faces of six-year olds? My choice  would be Hillary, of course, but he’s talking about his fellow Republicans.

Tom Piatak writes:

National Review long ago ran up the white flag in the War against Christmas. Now, it is joining the other side, with Kathryn Jean Lopez echoing a reader’s complaint that Mike Huckabee’s ad wishing everyone a Merry Christmas is “offensive:”

It’s hard to fathom the source of Lopez’ outrage. There is absolutely nothing preventing all the candidates from running similar ads. In fact, Ron Paul has run a similar internet ad. Wishing someone “Merry Christmas” used to be as American as apple pie. Now it is suspect, and subject to endless second guessing and analysis. We will know the enemies of Christmas have been defeated when Americans, once again, wish each other “Merry Christmas” as a matter of course, with no one questioning their motives or claiming to be “offended.”

The New York Times has a big story, “Sequoyah High’s Success Engergizes Tribe” on “all-Indian” Sequoyah high school in Oklahoma that has won the state girls’ basketball championship three years running. The article focuses on the star guard of the Lady Indians, a Cherokee named Angel Goodrich, and implies that she undermines the stereotype that American Indian girls aren’t good at basketball.

There’s only one little problem with the theme of the article, which you might notice by glancing at Angel’s picture.

That got me to thinking about how there used to be a stereotype that American Indians were good at sports. Jim Thorpe was the most famous all-around athlete in America ninety years ago. He was, roughly, half-American Indian and half-white and grew up on a reservation. Thorpe wasn’t unique at the time — there were a fair number of Native American baseball stars, such as Chief Bender, the Hall of Fame pitcher for Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics. Another Hall of Famer was outfielder Zack Wheat of the Dodgers, who was half-Cherokee:

“In an era that also produced Jim Thorpe and Chief Bender, Wheat’s Indian blood was thought by some to be the primary reason for his excellence. “The lithe muscles, the panther-like motions of the Indian are his by divine right,” Baseball Magazine wrote in 1917.”

But where have the American Indian athletes gone since then? Sonny Sixkiller was a quarterback when I was kid, and certainly had a cool name, but there sure haven’t been many others.

Here’s a table that quantifies my impression: Baseball Almanac lists 49 American Indian major leaguers, out of which 43 of them began their careers from 1897-1946. So, there have been only six to begin their careers in the big leagues in the 60 years since 1947. (Joba Chamberlain is the best known of the recent players.)

Wait a minute … what happened in baseball in 1947?

Jackie Robinson.

I bet that explains a part of why Indian big-leaguers largely stopped entering the league the year black players were allowed in: some of these Indian ballplayers were Indian like Angel Goodrich is Indian.