Musing on…A Way to Stop Illegal Immigration From Mexico

I was reading a story about how many Mexican feel that it is inevitable that they will emmigrate to the United States…legal or not. The article said how President Fox considers these people heroes, for many send wads of cash back (est. total $20 billion) to their home villages.

So, this is what I’m thinking: The U.S. can solve the illegal part of the immigration problem while also getting some benefit out of it as well with one "simple" political change…make Mexico a U.S. Territory with expectation of it becoming a state in the unspecified future. All Mexican citizens would then be U.S. citizens, and thus can migrate as they wish. The U.S. gets to exercise its various influences more-or-less directly. (Main difference in a state and a territory? U.S. doesn’t collect income taxes from a territory, residents of a territory don’t get voting representation in D.C.)

I’ll have to research this more deeply, but on the surface, the medium- and long-term benefits seem win-win.