Mexican President Felipe Calderon didn’t mince words when he spoke to a joint meeting of Congress on Thursday. He expressed strong opposition to the new Arizona immigration law. He urged lawmakers to stop the easy movement of arms, including assault weapons, from the United States to Mexico. He offered a candid assessment of his nation’s ongoing war against drug traffickers. His comments might not please all who heard them in Congress or across the nation, but they merit careful study and consideration.
It is hardly a surprise that Mexico views the tough Arizona law that requires law enforcement officials to question individuals about their immigration status if here’s any reason to suspect they are in the United States illegally as an insult. He didn’t offer a prescription to remedy the issue of illegal immigration, nor did he mention that he has his own problems in that area. Mexico has been charged with dealing harshly with undocumented immigrants on its southern border.
Mr. Calderon said that dealing with the broad problem of illegals would be less complicated if the United States would reform current immigration law. He’s correct, but Congress is highly unlikely to address the volatile issue in any meaningful way in an election year.
The Mexican leader is right, too, to urge the United States to stop or significantly reduce the flow of weapons across the border. Those firearms, especially assault weapons, provide arsenals for the drug traffickers who are engaged in open warfare with Mexican drug enforcement agencies. Mr. Calderon even offered a remedy to the availability of guns and the apparent ease with which they move across the border.
He urged that a ban on many assault weapons that was enacted in 1994 but allowed to expire during the George W. Bush administration be restored. That is a sensible suggestion, but it, too, is unlikely to become fact in an election year and at a time when the gun lobby remains a power in U.S. politics.