“While critical of U.S. efforts, Mexico limits foreigners more”

While simultaneously pushing for lenient immigration policy in the U.S., for its own cities, Mexico excludes 0.5 percent of its own foreign-born, now legal citizens from Mexican government positions (“While critical of U.S. efforts, Mexico limits foreigners more,” May 22). If Mexico expects the United States to be more forthcoming, it should stop being hypocritical and change how it reacts to its own foreign-born citizens. Why should Washington respect leniency requests if they have no ethical consistency behind them?

Foreign-born individuals living in Mexico are banned from thousands of its public offices. In the United States, however, only the President and Vice-President are required to be native-born. Though it excludes foreign-born Mexican citizens from a variety of government positions, the Mexican government allows its very large Mestizo population to run for public office and hold thousands of other jobs. As a Mestizo, an individual must have at least one non-indigenous ancestor, i.e. they can be foreign-born. The only way the Mexican government distinguishes these two types of ‘foreign-born’ citizens is how far their foreign born ancestor is removed.

While adopting the Center for Security Policy’s J. Michael Waller’s suggestion that U.S. policy should use the Mexican constitution as the basis for its own immigration policy, is hardly a solution, it will at least have a point where one needs to be made.