Asking the question “why” can reveal truths and provide solutions. Wanting to go beyond assumptions and dubious assertions, I seemed to remember that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) had something to do with the current illegal immigration problem. According to info on the web, here are a few interesting facts:
In 1994, the year NAFTA went into effect, Attorney General Janet Reno predicted that illegal immigration would fall by two-thirds within six years. “NAFTA is our best hope for reducing illegal immigration in the long haul,” she stated. “If it fails, effective immigration control will become impossible.”
Sixteen years later, the “free trade” promise under NAFTA has brought wages in Mexico’s manufacturing sector lower now than before the agreement with more than a third of Mexico’s farm jobs disappearing, sending millions of laborers and bankrupt small-scale farmers across the border to the United States. Cheap labor costs in China undermined the competitiveness of Mexico’s manufacturing businesses, and the export to Mexico of low-priced and government-subsidized farm products from the United States has decimated much of Mexican agriculture.
The “vision” of NAFTA, profoundly reactionary, pushes nations backward to 19th century ideology in which government’s economic function is to protect the interests of investors, while working people—the overwhelming majority in each nation—are left to fend for themselves.
And so, every year, hundreds of thousands of Mexican citizens risk their lives to cross the border to the United States because they cannot make a living at home. It is a testimony to the wretched failure of NAFTA to deliver on the promises of its promoters.
Border fences, border guards, divisive laws, and rounding up desperate people are not the answer. We need a better way to treat our neighbors to the south, who have been caught in an impossible economic condition.
This article appears in May 13-20, 2010.