Filibuster Cartoons
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Prime Minister Harper hosted Mexican President Phillipe Calderon in Ottawa this week, a summit that was darkened by a recently-implemented policy of the Canadian government requiring all Mexicans entering Canada to possess valid traveler’s visas.
Visas are complicated to get, and visitors from most other first world nations usually don’t need them to enter Canada. But Mexicans are evidently a bit less trustworthy, and imposing this requirement represents a deliberate disincentive designed to curtail illegal Mexican immigration into the country.
We usually think of Mexican illegal immigration as being a purely American thing, but the problem has been gradually creeping into Canada as well. Over the last five years the number of Mexican migrants entering Canada has nearly tripled, with the vast majority of them being bogus refugee claimants who gain entry on made-up humanitarian pretenses.
The new visa rule will supposedly put an end to that, by imposing an onerous one-size-fits-all obligation on any Mexican wishing to enter Canada for any reason. The law is unpopular in Mexico, and with the Calderon administration, but that’s kind of the idea.
In the best of times, Canada has the unique privilege of being able to learn directly from American mistakes, and formulate specific policies to prevent us from repeating them. It’s thus hard to view the Harper government’s push to preemptively curb illegal Mexican immigration as anything less than a desire to outperform America’s less-than-stellar track record on this issue.
Here’s a good editorial on the issue from the Globe and Mail.
