Did You Know...

That’s the headline on a noteworthy article about Mexican president Felipe Calderon’s top policy priorities–not the amnesty that President Bush and Ted Kennedy are rushing to shove down the American people’s throat, but a plan to make life better for Mexicans in their home country:

Mexican President Felipe Calderon won’t be fighting for migration reform when he meets with President Bush next week. Instead, he will be be spelling out what he intends to do to keep Mexicans at home.

Calderon, who was inaugurated on Dec. 1, has pledged to take 100 actions in his first 100 days in office, many of which represent the first steps toward “curing” Mexico’s long tradition of illegal migration to the U.S.

If implemented, his proposals could help transform Mexico from a labor-exporting country with relatively low growth, productivity and wages into an investment-rich, job-producing economy with better living standards for its 107 million people, nearly half of whom still live in poverty.

“We are laying the foundation for a more just, healthy society with better and more equal opportunities for all,” he said.

Even a modicum of success for Calderon would improve on the record of his predecessor Vicente Fox, who failed to persuade the United States to accept Mexican guest workers and also could not put in place proposed reforms.

Calderon’s plan is something that everyone who professes to care about the plight of Mexican illegal aliens should support. Of course, if it were anybody other than the leader of Mexico articulating the plan, we’d hear nothing but accusations of “nativism” and “immigrant-bashing.” Such is the state of the debate.