Illegal Immigration and NAFTA. I thought the passage of NAFTA was

[Pryderi]

supposed to improve the economic situation of Mexico and cut down on the illegal immigration. How long has it been now, 10-12 years?

[Greyhound]

1. and conditions are even worse for those that live and toil in the

maquiladoras, while the corporations posted record profits. They've suppressed their wages even further by threatening them with moving the plants to even cheaper labor markets.
Another turn of the screw.

[msgadget]

2. I've been waiting for the NAFTA discussion to begin!

I didn't listen to the floor debates, was NAFTA mentioned loudly and often? I just finished reading the Time coverage of the immigration options and there was no mention of NAFTA in any of the three articles soooo there's a bit of dishonesty floatin' around, isn't there?

Now when you dig under the cover of NAFTA you see an explanation for what's happening right here, right now - high priced drugs, lowered food safety standards, lower wages - and the recent Cancun meeting (attended by 15 CEOs) was to discuss how to strengthen it.

North American Free Trade Agreement


NAFTA was a radical experiment - never before had a merger of three nations with such radically different levels of development been attempted. Plus, until NAFTA “trade” agreements only dealt with cutting tariffs and lifting quotas to set the terms of trade in goods between countries. But NAFTA contained 900 pages of one-size-fits-all rules to which each nation was required to conform all of its domestic laws - regardless of whether voters and their democratically-elected representatives had previously rejected the very same policies in Congress, state legislatures or city councils. NAFTA required limits on the safety and inspection of meat sold in our grocery stores; new patent rules that raised medicine prices; constraints on your local government’s ability to zone against sprawl or toxic industries; and elimination of preferences for spending your tax dollars on U.S.-made products or locally-grown food. In fact, calling NAFTA a “trade” agreement is misleading, NAFTA is really an investment agreement. Its core provisions grant foreign investors a remarkable set of new rights and privileges that promote relocation abroad of factories and jobs and the privatization and deregulation of essential services, such as water, energy and health care.


During the NAFTA debate, Mexicans were promised NAFTA would dramatically increase trade and investment inflows which would create better jobs, raise wages and lift millions out of poverty. Ten years later, increased investment and exports have not translated into the promised benefits. ....The vast majority of Mexican workers have not benefited from NAFTA. Instead, the minimum wage, which approximately 25% of the country's 40 million workers earn, has declined 20% and hovers at around $4/day. Half of the workforce makes less than $8/day. ... Attempts by Mexican workers to unionize have been harshly - often violently - countered. ... The Mexican government recently estimated that over half of the population earns less than what is required to cover the basics of food, clothing, housing, health care, public transportation and education.

http://www.citizen.org/documents/NAFTA_10_mexico.pdf

[Yupster]

3. Ross Perot was right

Got to give it to the little guy when he's right he's right.

[400Years]

4. NAFTA destroyed Mexican Agriculture especially all the corn farmers

[Douglas Carpenter]

5. The Taboo Subject at the Heart of the Immigration Debate by David Sirota

The Taboo Subject at the Heart of the Immigration Debate

by David Sirota

Amid all the buzzword phrases like "border security," "guest
workers," and "amnesty" being thrown around in the superheated
immigration debate, one buzzword phrase has barely been mentioned:
"free trade." It's not that border security and guest worker status
discussions aren't important. But, as I discuss more fully in my
upcoming book Hostile Takeover, America's free trade policies get
almost no attention, no matter how central their role is in the major
challenges facing our country. How, you ask, does "free trade" fit
into immigration? It's pretty simple: had America actually had a
trade policy that lifted up the economic conditions for ordinary
workers both at home and in other countries, there would likely be
far less demand by desperate workers for illegal entry into our
country.

To see the full post, go to http://www.workingforchange.com/blog

[Donna Zen]

6. We talk about this at my kitchen table....

and we talk about how noone on tv talks about it.

There is no doubt this explosive wave of undocumented workers coincides with NAFTA. Screwing already poverty stricken people, and screwing going-to-be poverty stricken people, us, means never having to say your sorry. They are not ever going to talk about this because why? Cause they're getting disgusting wealthy from the policy that is causing all this turmoil.

[Beacho]

7. Nafta=Letters Of Marque for Corporatistas

Aaaaargh!!!!