Last week, during debate on the Senate floor on various amendments to the wide-ranging immigration bill, Sen. Harry Reid said that anyone who approved of making English the national language was "racist." This is the same senator who has lied about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' writing abilities in a way that could easily be considered racist.

But are we really a racist country when the only two jobs that are reserved for American-born citizens are those of President and Vice President of the United States?

Our neighbor to the south has two classes of citizens, and treats naturalized citizens in a manner worse than we in the United States treat illegal aliens.

In Mexico, non-natives are banned from those and thousands of other jobs, even if they are legal, naturalized citizens.

Foreign-born Mexicans can't hold seats in either house of the congress. They're also banned from state legislatures, the Supreme Court and all governorships. Many states ban foreign-born Mexicans from spots on town councils. And Mexico's Constitution reserves almost all federal posts, and any position in the military and merchant marine, for "native-born Mexicans."

Recently the Mexican government has gone even further. Since at least 2003, it has encouraged cities to ban non-natives from such local jobs as firefighters, police and judges.

If we started pulling this garbage, the Mexican government would howl.

Hypocrisy, thy name is Mexico.