I wrote on March 4th that rural voters hope that President Biden will focus on the meat and potatoes issue of national defense and security in his State of the Union Address. Of the numerous red alerts that the world is facing at the current time, a particular problem that the United States must address is the crisis at our southern border. As the saying goes “Never waste a crisis,” and we can leverage the global security crisis to address our southern border crisis. It is also the right thing to do even if we did not have an immigration crisis.
It is in the interests of Canada, Mexico, and the United States to be tightly aligned so that we can act as a unified force in the event of a global conflict or disruption. When our supply chains are disrupted, it will be crucial that the United States and Canada be able to rely on Mexico as a trusted partner. In other words, the three countries will be forced to act as Team North America. Let’s consider setting this up in advance, which will ensure that Americans recognize that North America must act as a single defense bloc, that Mexicans need to be our trusted partners, and that we can leverage this relationship to help solve our crisis at our southern border.
As a closely allied North American partner, is in the interest of both Canada and the United States to help Mexico secure its border and quell its internal gang and narcotics culture. A secure Mexico will alleviate the pressure on the US and Canadian borders. It would also deflect focus from the border between the US and Mexico.
In the meantime, like it or not, asylum-seekers will be part of the US economy. This is an eager and willing workforce. The president could propose that those asylum-seekers be allowed to work and that they be subject to a minimum flat tax of 15% while they are waiting for resolution of their asylum claims.
The seeds of a unified Mexico, Canada, and United States were planted long ago
The United States recognized that Canada and Mexico were crucial parts of its defense structure during World War II. The United States entered into a bilateral agreement with Canada in 1941 and Mexico in 1942. There have been numerous agreements since then and of course both the United States and Canada are part of NATO. Just last month the United States, Canada, Mexico held the Fifth North American Defense Ministerial to discuss defense priorities.
Mexico is not a member of NATO and the treaty itself does not allow Mexico to apply. The USSR during the Cold War simply was never considered a threat to Mexico. In addition there is no defense agreement between Canada and Mexico. American voters as a whole have not framed their thinking about Mexico as a crucial ally in the event of conflict, even if the US government quietly has.
The three countries did bring their economies together with the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994. That agreement was subsequently modified in 2020 in the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement. What the three countries could consider now is to assemble a team to ensure that everything North America needs is made somewhere in this North American defense bloc. This makes sense to the rural military voters around me.
It is in Mexico’s self-interest to secure its borders and eliminate the influence of gangs and cartels - the United States and Canada have the resources to assist with this
Rural voters are aware that the majority of foreigners coming across our southern border are not in fact Mexican. Indeed, historically the upper Midwest has viewed Mexican workers very favorably in. In the last couple of months Charter Communications has been installing underground fiber optic cables throughout Michigan as part of the rural broadband initiative. They are heavily relying on Mexican crews. We have all observed these crews working and they could not be working harder or faster. I have heard nothing but positive comments about them.
Mexico itself has indicated many times that it is willing to help United States and Canada with the migrant and narcotic issues plaguing us today. What it wants in return his financial, logistical, and military assistance. The United States and Canada should consider obliging Mexico. By working to secure Mexico’s borders and to reduce internal strife, the US and Mexico can more easily focus on normalizing movement of Mexican citizens between the United States and Mexico just as there is between citizens of the United States and Canada. There simply is no reason for a Mexican citizen to cross the border illegally. So long as a Mexican citizen has not been previously deported or have a criminal record, they can simply use their passport to cross the border into the US. Then even if they overstay their visa, they have at least been vetted once before entering the country.
And while we do grant asylum to some Mexicans, it is a vanishingly small number. Somewhere around the neighborhood of 1000 per year. This is a tiny manageable number.
This could give the President the cover he needs to walk back some of the actions he has taken on the border. We could even help Mexico with a border wall on their southern border, paid through the tax I discuss below, which Mexico would defend.
A fixed flat employment tax on asylum-seekers solves two problems
To the credit of rural voters, many have expressed the view that if we are going to allow millions of asylum-seekers in our country, we should at least put them to work. That is an inherently farm point of view. The family farm at its core was an institution that required both full and mandatory employment. There is at some level at least among some rural voters an intuitive understanding that if you give these immigrants work permits it will benefit the economy. We will simply be producing more.
Because most asylum-seekers will not receive asylum at the end of the day, but may be here for many years, it only seems fair to Americans that they pay a flat income tax beginning with the first dollar they earn. A flat tax also is justification for the United States expending resources to secure Mexico’s own borders and to put its house in order. The president who does this can truly say that we fixed our border issue and Mexico paid for it. The immigrants themselves would be thrilled to be at work and pay a flat tax. And at the same time it makes this proposal palatable to voters. This is a win for everyone.
Conclusion
The United States currently has an alarming problem with its southern border. Let’s help much of that problem go away by helping Mexico with its borders and internal struggles. To be done side-by-side with Canada. And regardless of the wall, it is the right thing to do. We do in fact need to act as a unified defense block in North America. You never know when we will need to pull up the drawbridge. And to make that expense palatable to Americans, we now have a sizable eager to work immigrant population that we can tax, starting with the first dollar of income. This is an approach the US should consider from both an immigration and military point of view. It is a win for all three countries, immigrants and voters.