A modest (?) proposal.

First published in Forbes,                          March 27, 1995

[Peter Brimelow writes: I enjoyed writing                          this article, which the former and great Editor of                          Forbes, James W. Michaels, held out for a cycle                          while he pondered the possible reaction and which got me                          on the front page of the Tijuana paper (twice) and                          denounced on Mexico City radio.  Seven years and maybe 2                          million net Mexican immigrants later, I still think –                          why not? Could it be worse than the current situation?                          Ironically, given the penultimate paragraph, it's now                          Mexico that seeks to micromanage U.S. immigration and                          other policies.]

WHILE WAVING FAREWELL to $20 billion of U.S.                          taxpayers' money as it starts its perilous trip South of                          the Border under the terms of the Clinton                          Administration's Mexican peso bail-out, we can't help                          pondering this Modest Proposal:

Wouldn't it be simpler to go back to one of the early                          versions of the 1853 Gadsden Purchase—and just buy Baja                          California?

James Gadsden was sent to Mexico by President                          Franklin Pierce, charged with buying enough land for a                          transcontinental railroad route around the Rockies. But                          American and Mexican negotiators also discussed more                          sweeping alternatives that suggest Baja California was                          then valued at around $10 million.

That $10 million adds up to about $180 million in                          today's purchasing power. And it represented a                          proportion of U.S. 1853 GDP that by a happy coincidence                          is now equivalent to . . . $23 billion!

With more than 1,600 miles of coastline, Baja                          California is a real estate developer's dream. They                          could really create value. One way or another the desert                          might be made to bloom—or at least generate healthy tax                          revenues.

Only about 2 million Mexicans live in Baja, mostly in                          three border-area cities. And in 1990 there were well                          over 4.3 million Mexicans living in the U.S., legally                          and illegally. About 250,000 more settle here each year.

So we're getting the Mexicans. And parting with the                          money. How about the land?

Linda Chavez, the former Reagan Administration                          official who now heads Washington's Center for Equal                          Opportunity, belongs to one of those Mexican families                          that never came to the U.S.—the U.S. came to them, when                          it acquired northern New Mexico. "The best thing that                          ever happened to us," she says flatly.

And Chavez guesses that Baja Californians would                          agree, if they ever got a chance to vote on joining the                          U.S. And she notes that the Colorado River would be a                          better barrier against illegal immigration.

Asks Chavez: "Why not?"

Purchases, of course, are out of fashion nowadays.                          But in the 19th century, the U.S. peacefully acquired                          the Mississippi Valley, Florida, Alaska. . . . And                          recently, in 1992, Walter Russell Mead of New York's New                          School caused something of a stir by proposing in World Policy Journal that the U.S. bid for Siberia.

Intolerable insult to a sovereign nation? More so                          than micromanaging its finances and hypothecating its                          oil revenues, as the Clinton Administration expects to                          do to Mexico?

Well, we just thought we'd ask.

Reprinted in VDARE.COM on May 10, 2002