The United States and Mexico have teamed up for several large programs that are all targeted at encouraging Mexico to cultivate its own economy. This week the president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, and President George W. Bush met for talks on Mexican-American relations. Bush thought it would be one more opportunity for him to use his Spanish (the one thing he learned at Yale) and gain the support of the Hispanic population in America.

Fox had different plans when he decided to meet with Bush. According to news releases, Fox has requested Bush to come up with a plan to control immigration from Mexico into the United States. Fox stated that he wanted to assure his people and the American people that by the time both presidents terms are up that any Mexican coming into America will be doing so legally.

I wonder if anyone has told Fox that the only immigration plan that will work effectively is for Mexico to develop its own economy. The moment a Mexican can get paid a fair wage-a living wage and one comparable to those here in the United States’ is the moment immigration will be under control. The United States is still seen as the land of possibility. We are still seen as the superpower. Granted our government and its people do not act like a superpower. We do not feel it is our place to ensure peace throughout the world. We do not feel it is our place to ensure human rights throughout the world. These attitudes are similar to another period in American history-isolationism.

The people of the United States are more to blame than our government when it comes to acting responsible and behaving like the current hegemony that we are. The people of the United State do not want to share. We are all like 4-year-old children who are playing with our favorite toys and don’t want to give them up-even if the action of giving up a toy for a little while will ensure that we have the toy for a long period into the future.

Fox also seems to feel that it is the United States’ role to solve the immigration problem that is plaguing both countries. The problem can be solved by using the resources Mexico already has at its disposal. The moment that Mexico begins, as it has already begun, the process in creating a social and political structure that can withstand a few falls is the moment its people will rally around itself and support their own actions.

But Mexico has taken many wrong turns in the past decade, It continually mistreats its indigenous inhabitants. It steals land from them and gives it to large American corporations, who-in return-strip the land of its resources and hire Mexican workers for a fraction of what they would pay workers in America. I know that many businesses produce products overseas because it is cheaper, but that does not mean that the people of Mexico should work in sweatshops. A fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. The Mexican economy may not currently require that someone make $15,000 a year to be above the poverty line. As long as Mexicans are above their own poverty line, are at least working to develop a poverty line, the people will be supportive.

We in the United States require a living wage, and if we are going to follow through on the foundations of NAFTA then we should ensure that the doors open to Mexico are one of quality and equality.

Josh Campbell is a senior studying political science.