The immigration issue isn’t playing as prominently as it did in 2006, but certainly isn’t far from the surface, being greatly still on the minds of many national lawmakers and Siouxlanders too. A new book offers a solution to the immigration “problem,” with New York City author Erik Rush saying it is futile to try to enforce the southern border with Mexico, that thousands of illegal immigrants still make it through despite the effort.

In his new book, “Annexing Mexico: Solving the border problem through annexation and assimilation,” Rush acknowledges his idea will generate controversy, but the U.S. should just extend the border south and take in Mexico. He said 40 percent of Mexicans would like to live in America and 10 percent of the population has already moved north. “The first step is conceding that patrolling the border does not and will not work,” Rush says, adding, “Mexicans are generally a hard-working, family-oriented population. Most Americans can appreciate these traits. The problem now is U.S. taxpayers are rightfully angry about carrying someone else’s load. The animosity will dissipate when the burden is shared equally by annexing Mexico and improving conditions there.”

The $12 billion annually spent on border security would be better directed to annexing and improving Mexico, Rush contends. He says there would be obstacles in taking in Mexico, including the need to add much infrastructure and better health care and “shaking out the corruption in Mexico’s government,” but said it can be done. One other benefit to the move — Rush notes “Mexico has huge oil reserves that could eliminate our reliance on OPEC.”

Of course, there’s one big factor, regardless of U.S. desire — would Mexico want to be annexed? A poll might show many Mexicans want to live in the U.S., but there’s the nettlesome reality of an autonomous nation to deal with too.

Tags: annex mexico, immigration policy, politics

This entry was posted on Monday, March 12th, 2007 at 10:50 am and is filed under Key issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.