"Such pressures, along with those caused by other American socialist phenomena such as the housing boom and the welfare state, have attracted illegal immigrants who wouldn't otherwise come in a market setting. But do NAFTA and North American solidarity guarantee a place for these migrants in the United States? According to Reuters, "Canada and Mexico have been frustrated that growth in trade among the partners to [NAFTA] has been held back by the U.S. crackdown on the border following the September 11 attacks in 2001." With the United States always wanting to call the shots, we might understand why Mexican nationalists would be concerned about further transcontinental integration.
And of course the United States intends to call the shots. If it wanted true free trade and open borders, as some fear, it would not need to beat around the bush: it would just have to stop controlling imports and shut down the immigration offices. This is not its goal. It does not want to cede control of anything. Phony free trade agreements, immigration plans with trillion-dollar price tags, drug reimportation bans - these are the marks of a government wishing to maintain and extend its control, not let go. It aims to let goods and people in and out at its discretion. It claims to favor free trade even as it erects barriers, blockades nations, and never thinks of just unilaterally dropping its tariffs. One might concede that the United States can be a nuisance, a hypocrite, even a bully, but wonder if there is any modern threat posed by the United States to Canadian or Mexican territory. Carlton Meyer has warned against the North American Union as a de facto attempt by U.S. interests to seize Canada. But why would this be to the benefit of U.S. interests? "Few Americans know that Canada is the leading source of imported energy to the USA," explains Meyer. "They are the biggest source of foreign oil, natural gas, uranium, and even electricity. As energy costs recently doubled, Canada is becoming wealthy, at the expense of its southern neighbor. This has weakened Canadian support for a NAU. The obnoxious foreign policy of President George Bush has nearly derailed it." But would the United States ever really want to compromise Mexican sovereignty? Depending on how it was sold, even the less interventionist nationalists might be brought on board. In a backlash against Mexican illegal immigration, paleoconservatives have implied that even military action against Mexico proper might eventually be warranted. Ryan McMaken has critiqued this paleocon position, pointing out that "advocating the invasion of Mexico City if the Mexican government doesn't agree with his policy preferences is curious for one who claims to support a restrained foreign policy." Indeed, it would seem that some red-blooded conservatives would welcome Bush's plans to incorporate Mexico under U.S. domination, so long as it was by military force. (When discussing the importance of national boundaries trumping market economics and individual liberty, after all, they rarely admit that to the extent that nations can own land, a Mexican acquisition of the Southwestern United States would be no more intrinsically illegitimate that the initial U.S. acquisition of that land from Mexico.) Now, don't get me wrong. I don't want to be ruled by Mexican or Canadian politicians, and nothing of the sort can be ruled out 100%. Times do change, and the U.S. is indeed weakening. Of course, the best solution to Mexican or Canadian influence over the U.S. government is the same as it was in the case of the Communists: Reduce the power of the government, ideally to zero, and replace it with the institutions of private property, liberty and free association. But ultimately, as centuries of American imperial ambition show, we U.S. citizens do not have to dread that we will awake one day, finding ourselves suddenly living under an internationalist, interventionist regime with no respect for national boundaries, free markets or the rule of law. We need not fear a North American Union arising and dominating us because it already exists and we already live under it. It is called the United States. If anyone should fear their national identity being sacrificed on the altar of such a Union, they are the Canadians and Mexicans, who have been pushed around by the actual Union for the better part of its existence, a Union that has repeatedly invaded their lands with the pretentious and undying aspiration of one day ruling the entire continent." http://www.lewrockwell.com/gregory/gregory145.html [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
