Does the southwestern United States belong to Mexico?

Here is an interesting poll from 2002:

A healthy majority of Mexicans claim that their country rightfully owns much of the southwestern United States, while most Americans believe Washington should adopt stricter immigration standards and deploy U.S. troops along the border, a new poll says.

According to a just-published survey conducted by Zogby International, the polling firm found that a majority of Mexicans say the U.S. southwest "rightfully belongs to Mexico," and that Mexican citizens should be able to come into those areas freely, without U.S. permission.

The poll found that 58 percent of Mexicans agree with the statement, "The territory of the United States' southwest rightfully belongs to Mexico." Zogby said 28 percent disagreed, while another 14 percent said they weren't sure.

Meanwhile, a similar number – 57 percent – agreed that "Mexicans should have the right to enter the U.S. without U.S. permission," while 35 percent disagreed and 7 percent were unsure.

"There is obviously a large and significant gap between the attitudes of Americans and Mexicans," said Robert Goldsborough, president of Americans for Immigration Control, which commissioned the poll.

"While most Americans want immigration reduced, most Mexicans think they don't even need permission to enter our country," he said. "The poll clearly shows there is less common ground for immigration negotiations between Mexico and the U.S. than the leaders think.

"Support for a porous border and a loose immigration policy occurs only on the Mexican side, not in the U.S.," said Goldsborough.

The poll found that 58 percent of the 1,015 Americans polled between May 28 and May 30 want the government to admit fewer immigrants each year, compared to 30 percent who want to keep immigration at current levels and just 6 percent who want to admit more.

Fully 65 percent of Americans, Zogby said, don't support granting amnesty to illegal immigrants currently in the U.S., as President Bush has advocated, compared to 26 percent who do support it.

Also, 68 percent said they agreed that U.S. troops should be temporarily deployed along the U.S. border "to help the U.S. Border Patrol curb illegal immigration." Twenty-eight percent disagreed, while 3 percent said they weren't sure.

This probably explains why Vicente Fox is so arrogant with his anti-American views on immigration since a large percentage of his population regards a significant part of the United States as stolen property.

Correction: Thanks to the reader who pointed out the error in my original title.