The population of Mexico is slightly over a hundred million people. If there are eleven million illegal immigrants in the U.S., roughly half from Mexico, that means about 5% of Mexican citizens illegally reside of the United States.

Is this a national disgrace in Mexico? Mexico is better situated for development than most countries, not only geographically, right next to the world best consumer market, but with substantial oil revenues (invest them in education, perhaps?) and the North American Free Trade Agreement. Why can't it do better by its people? It is bigoted not to ask.

In particular, this is the "soft bigotry of low expectations". There is an assumption, in the humantarian aspect of the immigration debate, that there can be no greater aspiration for a Mexican than to perform menial labor in the United States. This is the American dream. Why shouldn't there be a Mexican dream?