Robert J. Samuelson

Many of America’s immigrants, both legal and illegal, come from the neighboring country of Mexico. Vicente Fox, elected president of Mexico in 2000, created a stir when he suggested that the two countries agree to more liberal border and migration policies and to legalize the movement of Mexican workers into the United States. In the following viewpoint, Robert J. Samuelson argues that while it might be in Mexico’s interests to increase Mexican immigration to the United States, such immigration is not in America’s interests. The United States does not need the poor and unskilled immigrants that Mexico would provide, Samuelson contends. Furthermore, allowing more migration from Mexico would harm Mexican immigrants already in the United States and would threaten to divide American society along ethnic lines...