The Old Red, White, and Green

"We must accept that it is a cornerstone of Mexican foreign policy to export illegally each year a million of its own to the United States to avoid needed reform at home and to influence American domestic policy." ---Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 27 June 2003

With that wonderfully succinct observation in mind, this story in the Arizona Republic seems to me quite interesting:

MEXICO CITY - For the first time, Mexicans would be able to vote in the United States for the president of Mexico under a bill nearing approval in that country's House of Representatives.

If the measure becomes law, it will likely set off a fierce battle for millions of potential voters in Arizona and other states and will allow Mexican presidential candidates to campaign in the United States.

Mexicans would be able to register to vote in the United States and cast their ballots at polling stations, probably set up in consulates around the country.

It's all really coming together, isn't it?

Currently, there is no absentee voting for Mexicans who leave the country, and any Mexicans who wish to vote must return to Mexico to cast a ballot.

I don't know what significance all of this bears for us here in America, but when one considers that Mexico's largest source of foreign exchange revenue is remittances from its citizens living abroad (estimated by the Banco de Mexico to be $17 billion this year), it may be that the influence of our Mexican friends here among us may be about to grow exponentially. Which means that Mexico's own government and its domestic policies will now face the approval (or not) of a very large group of better paid and relatively better educated compatriots who have seen the other side of the fence.

Of course, if the millions of Mexicans who live here in America had wanted to participate in the affairs of their own country, I suppose they would have stayed home and done so. Still, it's an interesting development.