Have your say in the immigration debate. Sign this petition!!

[Elwood P Dowd]

More corporate scams masquerading as free trade are in the works. More workers and families will be devastated, and more of them will attempt to migrate to the USA at a time when there is already a surplus of unskilled workers. Edited to add: Click on the link for the petition. Also, some quotes from David Sirota added at the end.

http://action.citizen.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=3322

Sign the petition on NAFTA Expansion and Immigration

The myopia in Congress is stunning. It is clear that NAFTA and NAFTA-like policies implemented in Central and South America by the IMF and World Bank have wiped out millions of campesino farmers' livelihoods and caused economic crises that have forced millions to migrate to the United States. Yet some Republican leaders in Congress continue to press for expanding NAFTA — while decrying "illegal" immigration.

Petition to Congress:


"It is important for our country to debate immigration policies. But any meaningful discussion or policy must address the root causes of migration. This includes "free trade" policies that have devastated the rural economies of Latin America, leading to millions losing their livelihoods and the doubling of undocumented immigrants from Mexico since NAFTA.

Any serious approach to the immigration issues requires that the U.S. change its broken trade policy. Trade policy should improve standards of living, not cause a jump in poverty and desperate migration. I urge you to oppose the proposed U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement and any further expansion of the NAFTA model, with its well-documented record of economic damage and dislocation here and abroad."


From David Sirota.....

But with immigration and trade, we've done exactly the opposite - our trade policy has actually ratcheted up the desire of millions of Mexican workers to come to our country. Ten years after NAFTA, the Washington Post reports that 19 million more Mexicans are living in poverty. Similarly, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich notes in today's New York Times that "Mexico's real wages are lower than they were before " and economic inequality has grown.

That means millions more Mexicans potentially have an even more intense desire to head to America to better their economic situation. Had our trade policy actually included real labor, human rights, wage and other economic development provisions, maybe 19 million fewer Mexicans might be living in poverty. That would likely mean less desire by millions of Mexicans to head north of the border because things were actually developing well in their home country. And, of course, this says nothing of our government's unwillingness to seriously crack down on big employers here at home who exploit illegal immigrant labor, and thus further fuel the incentive/demand for illegal immigration in general.

[melissinha]

1. as a Latin American

I agree wholeheartedly, the foreign policy towards Latin America is partly responsible for the conditions that are driving people away from their homelands....

I have seen many people take degrading low jobs just for survival. Its not fair.

[Elwood P Dowd]

3. NAFTA adds 19 million to the poverty rolls in Mexico

Waite 'til CAFTA has a few years of raping Central America. South America is the next victim. Eventually, both North and South America will be one big happy family of corporate slaves working for peanuts.

[melissinha]

4. Well with the new leftist governments

lets hope that they keep this Country from dictating.... I wonder if teh rest of the world is powerful enough replace us a primary trade partner.

Too bad they're too rife with corruption...still.

[old_techie]

2. I signed it

[sinkingfeeling]

5. I signed it.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. As a supporter of the "illegal" immigrants, I had no problem signing.

The problem isn't the immigrants, who are poor people fleeing poverty, the same reason that our immigrant ancestors came here. The problem is the rapacious corporations and their paid for stooges in our government and the governments who sell out their own people.