If you were born in Mexico and eventually had a family would you try to cross into the U.S.?

of course, most country’s execute or imprison illegal aliens, but in the US they give you food stamps, medical benefits, social security, drivers license, all free, and the list goes on and on and on and on…...

Too risky for my taste. I would rather save up money so that I could go for a vacation to my country of choice, then just overstay my welcome.

I can’t really speak about Mexico specifically but I felt I would be safer in the US and my family would be safer and have a significantly better life, quite possibly. As @poisonedantidote suggests though and drawing on my experience in my own country, most people who are in Australia illegally have overstayed their visas. They aren’t asylum seekers.

@DrBill what are ‘illegal aliens’ and which countries execute them?

It depends. Depends on what my life is like in Mexico. My husband grew up very nicely in Mexico, and has many relatives who have successful businesses and have a good life in that country. Not everyone in Mexico has the drug cartel killing people in their neighborhood or are living in houses with mud floors. I’m not sure exactly what the OP pictures as the typical Mexican life? If I were very poor in Mexico and saw no opportunity for myself or my children then I would want to come to America most likely, not sure if I have it in me to cross illegally though. I tend to be a rule follower.

@Bellatrix Illegal alien is the same as illegal immigrant. Alien is not used as much anymore, but that previously was the term commonly used for people residing illegally in America.

@JLeslie. I knew that. I wanted @DrBill to answer and provide some evidence of countries that execute such people.

@Bellatrix Oh, I misunderstood. I assume he means countries like North Korea maybe? Hopefully he will come back and answer, because I am not even sure North Korea executes people, they certainly jail them, and not a fun jail to say the least. We detain people here in America sometimes, deoends on the situation. Mexico (MX) actually has fairly tight borders. I remember years ago some Cubans wound up floating over to MX rather than America, and MX sent them back.

Only as a jump point to Europe.

@Bellatrix: ”@JLeslie. I knew that. I wanted @DrBill to answer and provide some evidence of countries that execute such people.”

That’s not going to happen.

There are many things that need to be done in Mexico. The majority of the city police resort to extortion to supplement their pay. Drug dealers run the country and legal system. I believe that I would be a loyal Mexican and would stay there to and try to correct some of the problems.

No, I wouldn’t. Most Mexicans don’t want to leave their country. They only do this when they become desperate. Africans love their home too. Only when they are so miserable and got nothing to lose do they choose to risk their lives by crossing the Mediterranean into Europe.

Americans should do everything to help Mexico prosper.

Honestly, how could I possibly know what I’d do if I were a Mexican? As an American and based on what I see in the media and not on one shread of personal experience, I’m inclined to say I would do anything to get my family across the border, perhaps even illegally. But from a Mexican citizen’s viewpoint, I can’t even begin to speculate.

Probably. I’ve been to Mexico. It sucks.

It totally depends upon my conditions. If I were desperate enough, I might do anything to improve my family’s situation, from paying coyotes to get them across to joining a cartel and waiting until the right time to kill the boss and his team and take their money.
As I sit in my comfortable home, typing on my PC, sipping tea with a warmed stroopwafle, and listening to NPR talking softly in the background, I truly cannot answer honestly.
One this is certain: I would try to make my family’s life better – legally or illegally.

I will tell you one thing I have a lot of respect for anyone who willingly “risks it all” to work for slave labor wages doing work that US high school kids refuse to do.
I have very little respect for someone who finds out about a pregnancy and hops the border with the express purpose of living off the system. They are no different from the home grown version of takers.

Hmmm, if I were living and employed in San Miguel de Allende, catering to all the US retirees, I’d be happy right were I was. And a friend has a condo down in Zihuatenejo, knows quite a few locals that are doing surprisingly well.

Most people in Mexico are staying right where they are. It’s kind of a prejudiced stereotype to think the whole country is clamoring to get in the states. Certain people are desperate in the US too.

@Bellatrix
http://www.rferl.org/content/pakistan-iran-border-illegal-immigrants-killed/24805810.html

North Koreans are escaping the impoverished country every day, across the heavily guarded border to mainland China to avoid persecution and starvation. The escapees might face death article

@tom_g
when people become a$$e$, I do not respond to them, when people like @Bellatrix are interested, I respond as soon as I read their response.

@DrBill: “of course, most country’s execute or imprison illegal aliens, but in the US they give you food stamps, medical benefits, social security, drivers license, all free, and the list goes on and on and on and on…...”

@DrBill: ”@Bellatrix
http://www.rferl.org/content/pakistan-iran-border-illegal-immigrants-killed/24805810.html
North Koreans are escaping the impoverished country every day, across the heavily guarded border to mainland China to avoid persecution and starvation. The escapees might face death article”

So, when are you going to respond? “Most country’s countries execute or imprison”? Where’s the data you provided to @Bellatrix?

@DrBill – I’ve been burned so many times by engaging with you in other threads. You’d make wild assertions and then refuse to back them up when people called on you. I realize this is a personal attack and so was my first post. They’ll be flagged and removed – especially in this “general” question. I’m ok with that. I probably shouldn’t have jumped in. Sorry.

“Most Mexicans don’t want to leave their country…”

Mm, @mattbrowne, the word “most” always sets off a tiny bell in my tiny brain. I’d like to see some stats on this assertion.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room I don’t have stats, but I assume most Mexicans don’t want to leave either. They are generally patriotic and identify with their country poor and rich. It is what they know, same as any other person in their home land. Leaving a country is a big deal, difficult, emotional, scary, do you think people emigrate with ease? I think most Americans never bother to think about all the challenges, because they are lucky enough to live in a country with opportunity, reasonable amounts of integrity in the system, and laws. New language, new customs, illegal status. People are people all over the world. We are more alike than different.

@JLeslie, I agree.with you, and now that I re-read @mattbrowne‘s comment which motivated my previous comment, I see that I MISread it the first time. I agree with him.

I would hope I would be smart enough to not procreate if my circumstances weren’t ‘good’. So then I would be able to support myself in my own country.

Most likely not, since America is not even doing that great right now, nor will it recover any time soon in my opinion.

The United States defenitely offer you a better job then that you’d probably have in Mexico. At least, if you were poor. If I, as a Mexican, had a good job, then I’d simply stay there.

I don’t know. It is very dangerous to immigrate to USA from Mexico, assuming that you ride on the trains. There’s many assaults and murder going on and only half of the people reach the American border. So it would depend on the life my family and I had in Mexico and if it was really worth to take the risk. And then when you come to USA, you’re an illegal immigrant and that is not the best situation either. It’s really a tough situation for far too many people in the world. It’s crazy how different our lives and circumstances can be depending on where in this world we were born.

Given that this is a country of immigrants, we all have that instinct in our blood. Let’s go somewhere where it’s better. I suspect I would try to come to the US if I weren’t already here. Of course, it depends on where I was and how well off I was.

I am Mexican. I’m pretty well off. I don’t want to leave. It’s all nice and shit. Good foood, the people are nice, etc. Sure, crime could be a bitch, but that’s only in some parts of the country.

The people who try to cross the border illegally do so fully aware that they’re risking their lives. It’s out of complete and utter desperation.

@bob What is the difference between you and them, is it family, education, job, what is turning them desperate enough to risk their lives?

@KNOWITALL People who cross the border in the way we think of running across the border are generally very poor and little education. Mexicans who come to America have an average of an 8th grade education, the average education in the country is even lower than that. Others come here on tourist or student visas and never return home. Sometimes they do it through legal routes when already in the country legally, but visas running out, and sometimes they stay on illegally.

I would like to see the Mexican and Canadian borders abolished or at least changed so that anyone with an American, Mexican or Canadian passport can freely travel to all North American countries.

It would be fair to the citizens, force Mexico to live up to other north American standards and eliminate the underground “Illegal Immigrant” economy.

@JLeslie When I was in Mexico I saw jungle shacks bordering the road and one of our (I hate to admit this) waiters at the resort said that they get paid very little so they were very nice to get the tip money. Is there not a social services there or does anyone help the indigent?

@KNOWITALL They do have social services like social security, and if I understand my inlaws correctly there is social medicine as well, but most people with money use private care. As far as services or money for the poor I have no idea, @bob_ would know. My husband left after high school and they always had money so he knows very little about such things, plus it could be very different present day, 25 years later.

I don’t know if MX has a minimum wage, but if they do it must be extremely low or not adhered to. Honestly, MX is an an example in my opinion of the direction America is going if we continue to let the wealthy escape taxes and make incredible amounts of money and pay very low wages, and not focus on public education. MX has public schools, but I have a feeling they may not exist in rural areas, and most peoplenwith money send their children to private, which also means the education tends to be religious. Much like our American south in many areas. Not to get political, but it is political in the end. Political how we handle immigration into out country, political what our policies will result in for the economic future of our own country. There will still be somewhat of a middle class, there is in Mexico. There of course are people who are educated, dctors, lawyers, economists, business owners, large corporations employ well paid executives, etc. It isn’t like MX is a big waste land where everyone is poor and running around like criminals. There are beautiful areas of MX, nice lifestyle, etc. There are countries with much larger extremes between rich and poor and nothing in between.

At one point Mayor Giuliani was being paid as a consultant by the President of Mexico, I can’t remember which President or exactly what year, because Giulianli is credited with cleaning up NYC, reducing crime, etc. But, New Yorkers pay incredibly high taxes and have a lot of social services, and personally I can’t imagine the wealthy and powerful in MX going for the type of change necessary to create a more America like environment that we had during the 80’s and 90’s, in fact our rich and powerful in the US don’t want it either. America has enough history of government regulation, consumer protection, labor unions and an expectation of education for all, that we will probably never slide all the way back to the times of terrible abuse of laborers on a grand scale, but as long as a country neighboring us doesn’t have the opportunities we do, they will continue to come here.

Plus, America does a good spiel in the media about how wonderful we are, how wonderful our country is, equal opportunity for all, leaders of the free world, etc., etc., etc., and so people in other countries see our news, see our movies, hear about how the US has tons of wealth and they want to come. Once they get here they see it isn’t quite as golden as they thought. Not as easy. But, our bragging I think does influence some of theimmigration. Don’t get me wrong, America still is a place of dreams in my opinion, where if you are willing to work hard anyone can make it, but people outside of our country many times idealize it.

@KNOWITALL I often work on technical projects in Mexico. The Engineers and technicians are paid reasonably well. The really good ones end up working for U.S. and Canadian companies. The problem in Mexico is the same as in the U.S. There’s a great need for technicians and engineers but not much work for unskilled labor, even the maids speak at least two languages.

Free trade is hurting Mexico and the U.S. Canada doesn’t really have too much because they were and are smart enough to protect their markets. We need to stop giving tax breaks for companies moving overseas, it is the dumbest policy ever invented and it’s meant to break the U.S. labor movement. It has certainly done that.

Thanks gentlemen!

All I know is there were areas of lush beauty surrounded filled with gorgeous people, but as an American, I don’t think I’ll visit again, it made me too sad. I don’t ever want people to see me as one of ‘those’ Americans who comes to exploit the people, products or country.

Plus the machine guns at the airport really freaked me out. And later one of my friends got jailed until he gave the police all his money, his watch, etc…uh uh, not me.

None of the foreigners at the resort had anything good to say about America, it was kind of hurtful since I’d never travelled outside the US before. Enlightening though.

@KNOWITALL Where were you? What city? My experiences in Mexico are nothing like that. When I am in Cancún it might as well be Miami. When I was in Mexico City it mostly just felt like a large city. I don’t feel like we exploit Mexicans in Mexico. The people in Mexico pay poorly themselves. We tip well, and give them a better standard of living probably. We do exploit the illegal Mexicans here in the US, that I would say is true. I guess maybe factory workers could be paid better for the clothes they make for American manufacturers. I never looked into it, how the workers are treated. Mexico makes a lot of garments for American and European designers. And, they farm a lot of crops for export also.

We were in Cancun but we hired a driver we trusted from previous trips to drive us around the less popular areas. Yes, we could have stayed at party central, but we chose to see what most choose not to, it was very sad. After the driving trips, I started talking to the wait staff about conditions and they said people still lived without electricity in a lot of areas, I couldn’t believe it.

Honestly, with a husband in construction, I am not the person to talk to about how the poor Mexicans have it tough in America, sorry.

@JLeslie By that I don’t mean I despise them or anything at all, that sounded bad, sorry.

In our area, we get a lot of illegals that aren’t trained and they come in and underbid everyone else, even each other, to get jobs they aren’t qualified to do. Everyone else suffers the repercussions except them, they take the money and run.

@KNOWITALL Not to worry, I didn’t take it the wrong way. I have been through the downtown areas of Cancún, and I agree it is sad, and there is obvious poverty. But, in America we have some bad areas also. Parts of Appalachia and MS, no running water, no indoor plumbing, it still exists in America. Sketchy parts of Memphis, Detroit, Baltimore, and many more cities, all pretty scary, buildings condemned, really bad living conditions, high drop out rates, and even bullets flying.

I’m in Missouri, you’re preaching to the choir JL….lol