Good Walls Make Good Neighbors?
I am resorting to double-entry blogkeeping but, hey, its the weekend . . . Over at DA we’ve been taking note of what seems to be deteriorating U.S. relations with and influence among Latin and South America. The latest is that Congress has now passed restrictive immigration legislation that would prevent illegal Mexican migrants from ...
I am resorting to double-entry blogkeeping but, hey, its the weekend . . . Over at DA we've been taking note of what seems to be deteriorating U.S. relations with and influence among Latin and South America. The latest is that Congress has now passed restrictive immigration legislation that would prevent illegal Mexican migrants from obtaining US drivers' licenses and authorize the construction of a wall on the US-Mexican border. The Mexicans are irate. The law wasn't Bush's idea but he evidently got behind it after seeing which way the winds were blowing in Congress. The measure would not have passed had Bush made more progress toward the guest worker program he has long been promising Vicente Fox. So this is what happens to the U.S.'s "good neighbor and friend"; the country tapped as the first beneficiary of Condi Rice's goodwill offensive after entering office earlier this year. The move comes less than two months after Bush, Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin announced a new era of cooperation in North America. Speaking of the hemisphere, Democrats are saying CAFTA, we don't hafta, and we won't. The question is whether they will come forward with a viable plan to address the troubling workers' rights, environmental, and poverty-related issues that CAFTA and like agreements raise, so that we won't be stuck on the wrong side of the free trade issue for long. This issue is on a homework assignment for progressives that I wrote up some weeks ago and we ought to get to it. One additional note: The border issues are shaping up to be a centerpiece of the upcoming Mexican election, which means that anti-US sentiment could well be a rallying cry, leading to policies that will push Mexico away from the US and closer to Brazil, Venezuela and its other South American neighbors. Such a shift may appear not to be in Mexico's self-interest, but that doesn't mean political winds won't push in that direciton anyway.
I am resorting to double-entry blogkeeping but, hey, its the weekend . . . Over at DA we’ve been taking note of what seems to be deteriorating U.S. relations with and influence among Latin and South America. The latest is that Congress has now passed restrictive immigration legislation that would prevent illegal Mexican migrants from obtaining US drivers’ licenses and authorize the construction of a wall on the US-Mexican border. The Mexicans are irate. The law wasn’t Bush’s idea but he evidently got behind it after seeing which way the winds were blowing in Congress. The measure would not have passed had Bush made more progress toward the guest worker program he has long been promising Vicente Fox. So this is what happens to the U.S.’s “good neighbor and friend”; the country tapped as the first beneficiary of Condi Rice’s goodwill offensive after entering office earlier this year. The move comes less than two months after Bush, Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin announced a new era of cooperation in North America. Speaking of the hemisphere, Democrats are saying CAFTA, we don’t hafta, and we won’t. The question is whether they will come forward with a viable plan to address the troubling workers’ rights, environmental, and poverty-related issues that CAFTA and like agreements raise, so that we won’t be stuck on the wrong side of the free trade issue for long. This issue is on a homework assignment for progressives that I wrote up some weeks ago and we ought to get to it. One additional note: The border issues are shaping up to be a centerpiece of the upcoming Mexican election, which means that anti-US sentiment could well be a rallying cry, leading to policies that will push Mexico away from the US and closer to Brazil, Venezuela and its other South American neighbors. Such a shift may appear not to be in Mexico’s self-interest, but that doesn’t mean political winds won’t push in that direciton anyway.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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