Reply #9: Again?

[Igel]

There's a cycle:

US does something that might affect Mexico's revenues.

Mexico promptly screams racism and oppression, and vows to defend it's citizens and residents--albeit in another country--to the death. Anything directed at illegal immigrants is ipso facto directed against Latinos, and the only Latinos that anybody can really care about--Mexico thinks--are Mexican.

People with no great love for Mexico's politics point out that compared to illegal immigrants from Central America in Mexico, illegal immigrants from Mexico in the US have it fairly cushy, at least once the actual process of getting out of the maw of the coyotes is over. And that Mexico has a raft of internal problems and that it's #1 export, excess poorly educated underskilled workers, would also be the #1 rabble that could be roused to do something nasty. Moreover, this rabble earns far more for Mexico abroad than they would at home.

Mexico immediately vows to be a model global citizen and treat those illegally within its borders with dignity and respect. It then blames the problem not on the laws, which are blatantly and obviously discriminatory, but on a few bad greedy officials (none of whom, oddly, are ever related to those promising to clean up the situation, but many of whose replacements are related to those promising to clean up the situation).

Nobody notices that the more serious problem wasn't mentioned by Mexico, but the more glaring, yet superficial, instance of hypocrisy is taken to heart. Of course, checking up on them is difficult, and dealing with the main problem is clearly against Mexico's interests.

I'd say it's what--the cycle repeats in the course of 1-2 weeks every 5 years or so?