Is Trump Right About Mexico?

Is Mexico adopting an old British practice from the colonial era?  Is Donald Trump correct when he says Mexico is sending some of its criminals into the United States mixed in with otherwise law abiding immigrants?  

During the colonial period Britain cut the cost of operating jails by sentencing some of its criminals to  "penal transportation to" the North American colonies.  After the American Revolution "transportation" meant being sent to Australia or New Zealand.   The practice was particularly common with Irish and Scottish criminals and is mentioned in some Irish folk songs.  .

Later criminals would slip into the United States  along with honest immigrants. Some of those with criminal pasts, including some Nazi war criminals, came to the United States to try to change their lives and become honest citizens.   Back when America had a frontier, Americans who started out on the wrong side of the law would move to the frontier to try to start over.

Mexico, like the United States, has multiple government units of various sizes.   Government corruption is a problem in Mexico.  It is very possible that some Mexican government agencies are helping or encouraging criminals to go to the United States by mixing them in with honest people who are entering the U.S. illegally.   The Obama administration's lax enforcement of immigration laws could encourage such a  process.

I don't know if Mexico is encouraging some its criminals to come to the U.S. or not, but the claim should not be automatically dismissed.  We know Mexican drug lords are smuggling drugs into the U.S. so Mexican criminals are able to enter the U.S.  CNN reports that Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman  controls 80% of the drug trade in President Barack Obama's home town of Chicago.  Let's hope Guzman doesn't control Obama.

Trump's claim deserves a thorough investigation.


I'm not going to do a separate post on Trump's comment about Captain John McCain nor am I going to repeat it or provide a link.  I disagree with what Trump said, but I recall hearing a similar criticism being made from some of those in the military a few decades ago.   I don't recall the details of the earlier criticism.