Mexico's finance minister, Agustin Carstens, says that crime and violence have had a significant impact on the country's economy, cutting growth by 1 percent.

Crime has stopped companies from investing and creating new jobs. This year in Mexico at least 2,700 people have been killed and 300 kidnapped, mostly in drugs-related violence.

The need for extra security is increasing business costs by up to 10 percent, damaging job creation, sales and development. This translates into a loss of at least one percent in growth. The situation in Mexico proves the importance of stability through the rule of law. Not only is the proper application of the rule of law, as opposed to the arbitrary rule of a unitary leader's whim, important to the maintenance of a free people, but it is also a singular necessity for a productive economy. In Mexico, or anywhere else, a stronger rule of law would created the trust that is necessary to entice companines to invest in the economy.

While more than 30,000 Mexican troops have also been assigned to fight drug trafficking and related violence, the country is not safer. 
Despite public anger, drug cartels and kidnappers continue to threaten the peace, often with the assistance of corrupt police officers.

This is the state of the country that our leaders would bring into a North American Union with us. Even now this corruption seeps across our borders and into our heartland through the constant flow of illegal immigration and drug smuggling. The NAU would only exacerbate the problem and open our borders further to crime.

Integration with Mexico would only serve to put greater burdens on the rule of law within the United States. And as demonstrated in Mexico itself, that leads to an underperforming economy, joblessness, and poverty.

Dr. John Fisher teaches communications and researches in the area of mass media and political decision making.

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