On May 20, 2010, Mexico’s then-President Felipe Calderon addressed a joint session of the United States Congress—and attacked a recently-enacted Arizona law that allowed law enforcement officials to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally. 

According to Calderon, the law “introduces a terrible idea: using racial profiling as a basis for law enforcement.”

And to make certain his audience got the point, he offered: “I have said that Mexico does not stop at its border, that wherever there is a Mexican, there is Mexico.”

The hypocrisy of Calderon’s words was staggering. He was condemning the United States for doing what Mexico itself has long done: Strictly enforcing control of its own borders.

Felipe Calderon 

World Economic ForumCopyright by World Economic Forum / Photo by Remy Steinegger 

From a purely political viewpoint, it made sense that Calderon didn’t say anything about this.

Mexico has a single, streamlined law that ensures that foreign visitors and immigrants are:

• In the country legally;
• Have the means to sustain themselves economically;
• Not destined to be burdens on society;
• Of economic and social benefit to society;
• Of good character and have no criminal records; and
• Contribute to the general well-being of the nation.

The law also ensures that:

• Immigration authorities have a record of each foreign visitor;
• Foreign visitors do not violate their visa status;
• Foreign visitors are banned from interfering in the country’s internal politics;
• Foreign visitors who enter under false pretenses are imprisoned or deported;
• Foreign visitors violating the terms of their entry are imprisoned or deported;
• Those who aid in illegal immigration are sent to prison.

But Mexico doesn’t mind when millions of its own citizens routinely violate America’s immigration laws.

Then, only eight years after Calderon’s self-righteous demand that Americans repeal their immigration laws, irony struck.

Mexicans suddenly discovered that “illegal alien” was no longer a dirty phrase.

On October 13, a caravan of at least 5,000 men, women and children from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras set out for the United States.

On October 18, President Donald Trump threatened to deploy the United States military and close the U.S.-Mexico border to keep the caravan from entering the country.

And then Trump did just that. 

By November 19, migrants had begun piling up in Tijuana, which borders San Diego.

And that’s when Tijuana residents began carrying signs reading “No illegals,” “No to the invasion” and “Mexico First.” And marching in the streets wearing Mexico’s red, white and green national soccer jersey and vigorously waving Mexican flags. 

“We want the caravan to go; they are invading us,” said Patricia Reyes, a 62-year-old protester. “They should have come into Mexico correctly, legally, but they came in like animals.”

And the situation will only worsen in the months ahead.

Trump has ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to draft new rules to limit the number of asylum-seekers.

As increasing numbers of migrants pour into Tijuana, access to housing, schools, hospitals and other social services will become increasingly strained. Violent clashes between Tijuana’s 1.6 million residents and its thousands of uninvited arrivals will almost certainly be the result. 

The Tijuana city government—aided by nonprofit humanitarian groups—is providing a stadium as a migrant shelter, as well as blankets, sleeping pads, food and basic medical care.

But Tijuana’s mayor, Juan Manuel Gastélum, says Tijuana lacks the funds to continue supporting the migrants. He believes they will be there for more than six months as they are processed through the American asylum system. He has requested support from Mexico’s federal authorities.

So why has the Mexican Government refused to halt illegal immigration to the United States?

Because it still remembers the bloody upheaval known as the Mexican Revolution. This lasted 10 years (1910-1920) and wiped out an estimated one to two million men, women and children.

Massacres were common on all sides, with men shot by the hundreds in bullrings or hung by the dozen on trees.

A Mexican Revolution firing squad

All of the major leaders of the Revolution—Francisco Madero, Emiliano Zapata, Venustiano Carranza, Francisco “Pancho” Villa, Alvaro Obregon—died in a hail of bullets.

Francisco “Pancho” Villa

Emiliano Zapata

As a result, every successive Mexican Government has lived in the shadow of another such wholesale bloodletting. These officials have thus quietly decided to turn the United States border into a safety valve.

If potential revolutionaries leave Mexico to find a better life in the United States, the Government doesn’t have to fear the rise of another “Pancho” Villa.

If somehow the United States managed to seal its southern border, all those teeming millions of “undocumented workers” who completely lack documents would have to stay in “Mexico bonita.”

They would be forced to live with the rampant corruption and poverty that have forever characterized this failed nation-state. Or they would have to demand substantial reforms.

There is no guarantee that such demands would not lead to a second—and equally bloody—Mexican revolution.

So Felipe Calderon and his successors in power have found it easier—and safer—to turn the United States into a dumping ground for citizens that the Mexican Government itself doesn’t want. 

Now with Trump determined to shut off that safety valve, another Mexican Revolution may be just around the corner.