The Mexicans are coming!
While I suspect the main concern for many Americans over an invasion of the U.S. by Mexico would be whether it brought better Mexican restaurants in its wake, our friends at Fox News and their rightwing political allies are in a froth over 17 supposed "armed incursions" by the Mexican Army or other Mexican government agents into U.S. territory last year. They are demanding that Bush build the border fence and are threatening doom to any Republican candidate for President who doesn't toe the line on immigration.
While border crossings by a neighboring country's army are certainly cause for concern, I suspect many of these "incursions" were inadvertent--the border isn't always clearly marked and isn't always the Rio Grande. There could be an equal number of incursions by the U.S. Border Patrol into Mexico. And how 'bout that long, unguarded Canadian border? Shouldn't we take a few billion dollars from education, say, to build a fence up there, too? If we built it really tall, maybe we could stop those cross-border incursions by cold Canadian weather fronts. Those kill a lot more Americans than the Mexican Army does.
But seriously, folks, this anti-immigrant hysteria has gone too far. Responsible political leaders in both parties need to take public stands in which they basicly tell people to cool it. A story in the New York Times today highlights the fear in which Hispanic immigrants in Waukegan, Illinois, now live. We're a nation of immigrants, legal or otherwise, and need to end the hysteria.