# Coloradans: Your Governor Wants You To Say Bienvenidos to Illegal Aliens **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 2, 2005, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coloradans-your-governor-wants-you-to-say-bienvenidos-to-illegal-aliens/288024 "2005-02-02T19:26:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coloradans-your-governor-wants-you-to-say-bienvenidos-to-illegal-aliens/288024/101 "2005-02-09T19:50:14Z")
> [@Yeticus Rex](#): > > I’m not sure what classification you can give the Mexican government and their social/financial elite, but I do know that they don’t care for their poor and would rather see them disappear any way possible so they don’t have to acknowledge that there is a huge problem, while securing their southern boarder so they don’t have any poor people from Central America replacing them. Uh, Central America isn’t in great shape right now. In Guatemala, decades of civil war has really fractured people’s mindsets, and right now Guatamala is one of the most violent countries on Earth. Highway robbery, gang wars and political related (often terrorist) violence are fairly common. Guatemala’s neighbors, an assortment of some of the less fun countries in the world, don’t really help. Mexico is not really trying to keep out the poor as much as poltical radicals, terrorists and gangs. The state of Mexico versus Guatemala does not really compare at all to the state of the US and Mexico. > [@](#): > > On a radio station, I have heard (but would want to verify) that in the 4th quarter of 2004, that income from abroad (i.e. - working immigrants both legal and illegal) being sent back to their families in Mexico has surpassed the income from tourism. Can anyone verify? I really can’t think of anything more “American” than risking it all to work hard and support your family. The values of Mexican immigrants are largely the values that America celebrates and encourages. Anyway, American tourism has been abnormally low in the last few years. My tourist town is really struggling, and in three months travelling in Asia, I only met one other American tourist. ---
**Author:** ![CBEscapee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@CBEscapee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBEscapee)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coloradans-your-governor-wants-you-to-say-bienvenidos-to-illegal-aliens/288024/102 "2005-02-09T21:27:49Z")
> [@Yeticus Rex](#): > > On a radio station, I have heard (but would want to verify) that in the 4th quarter of 2004, that income from abroad (i.e. - working immigrants both legal and illegal) being sent back to their families in Mexico has surpassed the income from tourism. Can anyone verify? Remittances from Mexicans in the US have surpassed tourism revenues for sometime now. I believe they are the second leading source of legal income after Pemex. Illegal drugs is another story. This IMO, more so than any politician’s interest (disinterest?) in the poor, is probably the major reason for the Mexican government’s reluctance to do more in stemming the emigration of Mexicans to the US. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_the_turtle/32/2926_2.png) [@Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_the_Turtle)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coloradans-your-governor-wants-you-to-say-bienvenidos-to-illegal-aliens/288024/103 "2005-02-09T22:37:52Z")
Here is a report that touches on the amount of money being sent back to Mexico. [http://www.steinreport.com/BearStearnsStudy.pdf](http://www.steinreport.com/BearStearnsStudy.pdf) They use it mostly to try to estimate the number of illegals here. ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coloradans-your-governor-wants-you-to-say-bienvenidos-to-illegal-aliens/288024/104 "2005-02-09T22:55:27Z")
> [@even sven](#): > > U > I really can’t think of anything more “American” than risking it all to work hard and support your family. The values of Mexican immigrants are largely the values that America celebrates and encourages. Those are fine values, but I doubt immigrants as a group possess them to any greater extent than native-born Americans as a group. And these values represent only a small part of what it means to be an American. I can’t square the “hardworking, family-oriented Mexican immigrant” stereotype with the insistence that immigrants be entitled to every government handout under the sun, including preferential treatment on the basis of ethnicity. If they’re so productive, it should be a non-issue whether they are eligible for government benefits. Yet there’s a vast corps of professional ethnics that rises up to resist any restrictions or even enforcement of the existing laws limiting benefits for immigrants. ---
**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coloradans-your-governor-wants-you-to-say-bienvenidos-to-illegal-aliens/288024/105 "2005-02-10T04:06:06Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > I don’t know, but it will sure make me want to buy someone else’s washing machines from now on. I’m sure they don’t care, but at least I can then say I’m not “rewarding” them. They are building side by side refrigerators ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coloradans-your-governor-wants-you-to-say-bienvenidos-to-illegal-aliens/288024/106 "2005-02-10T05:07:11Z")
I’ll make it easy on myself and just not buy that brand. Period. It means nothing, but it’s the only way I can “punish” them. ---
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coloradans-your-governor-wants-you-to-say-bienvenidos-to-illegal-aliens/288024/107 "2005-02-10T18:56:24Z")
> [@Fear the Turtle](#): > > Here is a report that touches on the amount of money being sent back to Mexico. > > [http://www.steinreport.com/BearStearnsStudy.pdf](http://www.steinreport.com/BearStearnsStudy.pdf) > > They use it mostly to try to estimate the number of illegals here. Thank you for the link…very helpful. Which part of the desert do you live? (I’m in the Victor/Apple Valley area.) **CBEscapee** , I’m in agreement with your last post. Reluctance is a good word to describe the Mexican government’s reaction (or lack of action). **Even Sven** , no doubt is the Central American region more unstable and poorer than Mexico itself, but that doesn’t excuse the government’s approach in handling it’s own citizens/economy/internal problems in laisse_ **r** _ faire way, and I don’t mean “laisse_ **z** _ faire”. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_the_turtle/32/2926_2.png) [@Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_the_Turtle)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coloradans-your-governor-wants-you-to-say-bienvenidos-to-illegal-aliens/288024/108 "2005-02-10T21:58:13Z")
> [@Yeticus Rex](#): > > Thank you for the link…very helpful. Which part of the desert do you live? (I’m in the Victor/Apple Valley area.) Lancaster/Palmdale. Got the link from the John and Ken (640 KFI) website. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coloradans-your-governor-wants-you-to-say-bienvenidos-to-illegal-aliens/288024.md?page=5)