There are 18 million people of Mexican heritage living in the US. Four Mexican senators traveled to Washington to lobby Congress to grant residence to 3 million illegal immigrants - President George W. Bush promised to speed up the process of making new arrivals US citizens. This is a massive voting block that could determine the outcome of elections. Unfortunately, this has been postponed due to the terrorist situation.
By contrast, none of over 150,000 Americans living in Mexico are allowed to become citizens and vote, much less influence any elections. Bush would also process citizenship applications to within six months. To become an inmigrado (no voting rights) requires a five year status as a rentista. Citizenship is inherently Hispanic, Rome extended citizenship to all free men in Spain. Today in Spain foreign residents may vote. Why are Americans not allowed to become citizens?
Mexican immigrants send billions of dollars home annually. American residents pour countless dollars into Mexico, and must pay yearly to stay as rentistas? Teamster's president James Hoffa claimed that Mexicans are taking work away from 1 million Americans. This may sound far fetched, but could influence people. It is unlikely that older American residents make any impact on Mexico's work force. They do make an impact on improving Mexico as former Governor Cardenas of Jalisco declared.
While Mexico was weakened by internal strife, the US in 1848 concluded their unjustified invasion... annihilated over half of Mexico and gobbled it up for themselves. The only justifications they could conjure up were racist ravings, such as Mexicans do not know how to efficiently utilize the land, decadent Indians would self destruct, etc. If the Jewish can reclaim Israel after a 2000 year absence - what can Mexico do after only a century and a half? The US was influential in establishing Israel. Under today's circumstances the US may not be so enthusiastic about Israel. It is not likely that Mexico will have a repeat of Pancho Villa and invade the US. However, they are regaining their historic lands through love as evidenced by their soaring population.
President Vicente Fox is pressing for open borders with the US, with considerable opposition from the US. Can't America allow the people, whose lands they have stolen, to at least return?
There are concerns in the US about Mexicans being considered for citizenship while other minorities are not. Considering that it was once their land it would seem that they should be first.
The bottom line is that Mexicans' quest for US citizenship would be greatly enhanced if Mexico gave reciprocity (equal rights) to Americans including the right to vote and a Mexican passport.
