Illegal immigration continues to be a front-burner issue, with most of the political elites scrambling to find some way to avoid responsibility for the deluge of illegal immigrants turning America upside down — while allowing the deluge to continue.

For roughly two decades now, tens of millions of illegal immigrants, mostly Mexican nationals, have surged north across our virtually unprotected southern border, bringing with them crime, drugs, and other contraband, and above all, a broad-based contempt for American laws.

In the eyes of the Mexican government, the American border should be open for any Mexican nationals who decide to seek work and residency north of the border — with the monies of the American taxpayer available to defray the cost. In recent years, the estimated tens of millions of illegal residents have become increasingly bold, demanding unfettered access to American welfare benefits and medical care, and insisting on unconditional amnesty.

But for the unpopularity among American voters of another amnesty bill like the 1986 fiasco — which granted blanket amnesty to millions of illegals while doing nothing to halt illegal immigration — Congress would likely have granted some form of amnesty already, with the enthusiastic backing of President Bush. The White House website’s own policy statement on illegal immigration supports offering permanent residency to illegal aliens already in the United States, after requiring them to pay fines and wait up to 10 years for a visa. This is back-door amnesty by another name, because it ultimately rewards illegal immigrants for breaking the law (and entails far more costly, bureaucratic, and time-consuming measures to deal with the problem than simple deportation would require).

Ironically, Mexico itself, faced with an illegal immigration problem of its own, courtesy of the citizens of even poorer nations to the south, like Guatemala and El Salvador, keeps a close eye on its own borders, and monitors carefully all foreigners inside its borders. In fact, Mexico, with very limited resources in comparison to its larger, wealthier northern neighbor, annually deports more illegal immigrants than does the United States.

According to Mexican immigration law, only foreigners having the money necessary to support themselves and their dependents are permitted inside Mexico. Foreigners who violate immigration laws, including forgery of papers, working without a permit, or overstaying their visas, are routinely and severely punished, often by summary deportation, but sometimes by lengthy prison terms. Illegal immigration is a felony in Mexico, with violators subject to two-year prison sentences. Even airlines and other transportation companies carrying illegal immigrants into Mexico are fined.

Mexico’s Unstinting Enforcement

Foreigners, including Americans, who get involved in any way in Mexican politics are not tolerated. Allan Wall, writing for VDARE.com while residing in Mexico, described a fairly recent typical incident and its aftermath:

The Americans’ offense was to participate in May Day marches in Mexico City and Guadalajara. The ones in Mexico City were college students, visiting with their professor from Washington State. They had joined a group protesting the expropriation of land near Mexico City for a new airport and were waving machetes with the other protestors. They might have gotten away with it, except that some of them were heard on the TV news shouting protest slogans in broken Spanish, which in turn caused Mexican journalists to express outrage.

The INM [the Mexican equivalent of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement] wasted no time. The offenses were committed on May 1st, and by the evening of May 2nd, the offending gringos were on their way back to the U.S.A., their Mexican visas revoked.

The Mexican government has developed a registry of every single person, citizen and non-citizen alike, residing in Mexico, and has stepped up surveillance of foreigners on Mexican soil.

So zealous has been Mexican enforcement of immigration law that instances of severe abuse of illegal aliens, especially Central Americans, have prompted indignation both inside and outside Mexico. Mexican immigration officials have been implicated in rape, torture, and other acts of brutality against hapless Central American immigrants (many of whom are transiting Mexico en route to the United States). Kenneth Emmonds, an economist and journalist living in Mexico, cites the murder of an entire family from El Salvador as one example in a continuum of abuses that also features immigrants being shoved off moving trains.

Leaving aside extralegal abuses committed by corrupt officials, however, Mexican immigration laws are perfectly understandable. Mexico, like most independent nations, wants to protect itself from unwanted outsiders. But Mexico’s blatant double standard, maintaining jealous vigilance over her own borders and over visiting foreigners — while exploiting the docility of her affluent northern neighbor — is morally inexcusable.

In the meantime, American lawmakers, under withering pressure from a motley coalition of anti-American interests — ranging from calculating internationalists, who see in open borders the precursor to a Mexican-American political merger along the lines of the European Union, to champions of the American welfare state, who welcome the pro-welfare stance of many indigent illegals — continue to dither while the borders crumble. And this from the same lawmakers who show little hesitation in committing American resources to policing the borders of other countries, like Iraq, Afghanistan, and South Korea.

By all appearances, the Mexican government is determined to have, in the words of J. Michael Waller, writing for Human Events, a “one-way immigration relationship with the United States.” Where immigration policy and the Mexican government are concerned, America would be better served to do as they do — not as they say.

Charles Scaliger is a teacher and freelance writer.