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 Editorials | December 2006 
Economic Reforms Must Lead Agenda for Mexico's Calderón
 Bill Frist - My Turn
| | Calderón should propose an overhaul of Mexico's burdensome labor laws and seek private investors for the top-heavy state oil monopoly. |
Attending the inauguration of Mexican President Felipe Calderón last week only strengthened my conviction that building a stronger U.S.-Mexico alliance will require an end to illegal immigration. This, in turn, requires comprehensive immigration reform in the United States, coupled with extensive economic reform in Mexico.
Both countries face a grave situation. Every day for the past five years, more than 1,000 Mexicans have made their way across their country's northern border and have settled illegally in the United States. Phoenix and Maricopa County have taken in a disproportionate number. Mexico has lost many of its most productive citizens and the United States has taken in millions of unskilled laborers who operate in an underground economy and strain the nation's social infrastructure.
Congress spent much time last year debating proposals to improve this situation. A law we passed to secure every inch of our border with Mexico represents an important first step. But it is just the beginning. The next Congress must also address our economy's labor needs, strengthen border and hiring enforcement, and address the approximately 12 million illegal immigrants currently living in the United States.
Mexico must also take steps to make sure that its citizens enter the United States only at designated checkpoints.
But the real solution - the only way to stop illegal immigration for good - is a strengthened Mexican economy that provides so many good jobs that Mexicans don't feel a need to leave home.
Every time I visit Mexico, the poverty strikes me. Mexico's per-capita income is less than a quarter of that of the United States. A quarter of the population remains in the nation's countryside even though agriculture produces only 4 percent of the Mexico's gross domestic product.
The economic disparities are so significant that a minimally skilled Mexican worker earning only the American minimum wage - and many Mexicans working in the United States earn more than that - can support an entire family back home.
For many Mexicans growing up bereft of opportunity, illegal immigration seems like the best option. While the United States can help close the disparity with Mexico, ultimately President Calderón will have to make hard choices to move Mexico's economy into the modern world.
The country has a long way to go. Right now, almost a third of Mexico's national revenues come from state-owned monopolies, and private investors in Mexico's energy sector face enormous burdens. Labor laws remain inflexible, property protections need strengthening and corruption remains rampant. On the Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal Index of Economic Freedom, Mexico fares poorly, ranking behind such countries as Madagascar, El Salvador and the notoriously bureaucratic France.
During his tenure, President Vicente Fox made some progress. It's now much easier to start a business in Mexico, investors have purchased some smaller state enterprises and a professional civil service has replaced partisan patronage throughout the bureaucracy.
But Mexico needs to do a lot more. In particular, Calderón should propose an overhaul of Mexico's burdensome labor laws and seek private investors for the top-heavy state oil monopoly. The United States, likewise, should do everything it can to move Mexico in the right direction.
Presidents Bush and Fox have formed a "Partnership for Prosperity" that has already brought more than $1 billion in private American investment to Mexico. Now, we should take this partnership to the next level and see what the American and Mexican governments can do to channel even more private American investments towards the areas of Mexico that produce the most illegal immigrants.
Stopping illegal immigration from Mexico will require vigorous efforts on both sides of the border. And, for Mexico, economic reform should rank as the top priority.
The new Mexican president's inauguration offers both Mexico and the United States the chance to write a new chapter in our history together.
The writer, a Republican from Tennessee, is majority leader in the U.S. Senate. |
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