Editor's Corner: More odd behavior in Mexico

Now, one of the world’s richest people is getting into the act. According to the Associated Press, Mexican mega-billionaire Carlos Slim, the telecom magnate, has joined with Mexico’s largest university and the country’s human rights agency to hold workshops for Latinos in the United States illegally on how to obtain U.S. citizenship.

“The workshops will focus on an estimated 2 million to 3 million Mexican migrants who might be eligible for U.S. citizenship but haven’t completed the process,” says the AP.

This is on top of an effort by the Mexican government to spend some $50 million on keeping thousands more Mexican nationals in the United States.

This is so odd that it causes one to wonder why all this money is being spent.

I know if I went to Canada and stayed there illegally, the United States wouldn’t spend a nickel to make it possible for me to stay in Canada. Any problems I might have with Canadian immigration authorities would be my own problems. If I said, “I want to stay in Canada and become a Canadian,” I would have to follow Canadian law or get out.

The U.S. Embassy might help me if I had lost my passport, or was trying to do business in Canada and needed help, but if I had broken Canadian law the only thing the Embassy staff would do for me would be to make sure I was treated fairly according to Canadian law.

The only reason I can think of for my government to want to spend money to keep me in Canada would be that I was a criminal, or that I was sending remittance checks back to the United States, contributing to the gross domestic U.S. product. Or, maybe they would just not want to be bothered with me.

Maybe, that’s the answer. Mexico just doesn’t want to be bothered with its own people. Yet, it wants to keep the $25 billion a year in remittance payments flowing to families back home.

What a sad commentary.