With all the rhetoric surrounding “illegal aliens” or “undocumented workers,” one would think all Mexicans were trying to enter America illegally. But is that the real problem? Let’s take a look at the border with Mexico and closely examine those crossing.

The next time you are watching television and you scan past the Spanish-speaking channels, stop and look. Take a good long look at the people in Mexico during their news broadcast, game shows and entertainment programs. Turn off the sound and just look at the faces on the streets and in the studios. With the sound off you would not be able to tell you are watching a program from Mexico.

You see blondes, redheads, Europeans as well as black people! They look like the dancer from the 1960s “Charo” or the actor Erik Estrada from “C.H.I.P.s” but not the people cutting your grass. They have all been living in Mexico for generations, speaking Spanish and living pretty good lives.

Now take your mind to the television news of the “Mexicans” crossing our borders. Remember the night-vision cameras catching people running across a field trying to get into America? Who do you see in the fields planting the tomatoes? Do you see any blondes, redheads or Europeans? No? Why not?

They all look the same; they are all the same. You see people with high cheek bones, straight black hair and who are short in statue. You are looking at Indians native to Mexico, not European immigrants to Mexico. Why is there only one racial group so struck with poverty that they are willing to walk 200 miles across the desert just for a chance to cut my grass? What conditions must exist in Mexico to force one racial group to risk their lives for a below-minimum-wage American job while living in the valleys of Southern California?

Anyone with eyes can see clearly that the problem is racial not economic. America had to confront its racial problems, and we became a better nation for it. Mexico will not become a great nation until it faces the real problem of racism. Instead they have found another way to face their problems: exploiting and exporting.

It is too beneficial for the Mexican government to force its poor citizens to enter America and send money home and into the Mexican economy. Billions of U.S. dollars annually are mailed back to Mexico by workers seeking to take care of their families. It has grown an entire industry and will be hard to change.

Instead of just building walls (which I support), we should also be putting diplomatic pressure on Mexico for the human-rights violation against its own citizens.

Former Mexican President Fox acts like it is a right of Mexico’s Indian citizens to seek employment in America. If Mexico wanted to stop the illegal invasion of America, it could. In Tijuana, those seeking to enter America gather every night. They gather at the same locations waiting for the sun to go down before they begin their journey north. They receive assistance from charity groups as well as some government help while still on the Mexican side of the border. The police and Mexican state governments are well aware of the gathering places. They will not stop it because there is too much money in poverty. So they place their racial burdens on the American taxpayer and demand we provide jobs, health, education and security for their citizens.

Therefore, the arguments regarding illegal immigration involving either supporting or fighting racism. Would one argue that slavery in America was OK because the slaves added to the economy? Do not forget that slaves worked in jobs other Americans did not want to do. And you had those who, while not supporting slavery, still appreciated the low wages and cheap vegetables. But it was still racist and degrading.

If America is still a nation of principles, it will stand against illegal immigration and demand that the Mexican government provide civil rights and equal opportunity for all its citizens – or we should reduce our trade with them.

Mexico seems very proud of its European (Spanish) heritage. Maybe it is about time to be proud of its Native heritage and afford them the dignity of work in their own land. It is not a “Mexican” problem; it is a “racial” problem. It will only become a Mexican problem when people looking like Charo or Estrada begin to cross the border illegally.