One of the most heated
topics in news and debate shows across the country today is immigration law.
The question is should Congress pass or reject an immigration reform that would
grant citizenship to 11 million undocumented immigrants? After focusing on the
history of immigration and the contrasting effects NAFTA has had in Mexico and
the United States, it is clear that the debate in Congress on whether or not to
pass an immigration reform is long overdue.
NAFTA is short for the
North American Free Trade Agreement and covers Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.
NAFTA was launched 20 years ago and was supposed to reduce trading costs,
increase business investment, and help North America be more competitive in the
global marketplace. However, NAFTA has only resulted in the exploitation of
Mexican workers, the loss of jobs in the U.S. and the only ones who have benefited are multinational corporations that are engaged in the exploitation.
American corporations
have moved out of America, gone across the border to build a factory, exploit
Mexican workers, and have shipped back into the U.S. to sell their products. In
the United States you got workers who are being paid ten times, at least, more
than workers on the other side of the border for the same job. This is why American
companies decide to cross the border so that they can pay people a non-living
wage. We've seen American jobs go to Mexico, but we haven’t seen the life of
the Mexican worker improve. In fact, the standard of living for the average
worker in Mexico has decreased. Because of this decrease in the standard of
living in Mexico we see millions of immigrants come to the U.S. illegally. These
U.S. corporations have eliminated so many family farms in Mexico along with
jobs that used to be labor intensive jobs that these people come north looking
for a way to survive. But we never talk about the way in which our trade
agreements contribute to immigration.
The corrupt Mexican
government is also to blame. Carlos Salinas, president of Mexico at the time
NAFTA was signed, promised that free trade and foreign investors would make
Mexico a rich and prosperous nation. Unfortunately, this never happened for the
citizens of Mexico. Domestic industries were dismantled as multinational’s
imported parts from their own suppliers. Multinational corporations have the
ability to buy out anybody who opposes their views and can place officials that
lean their way.
The people proposing
these trade agreements could care less about the average American or about the
poor people in Mexico. All these people care about is increasing the profits
for their company. These CEO’s and business people are the ones in Washington
D.C. with their lobbyist’s trying to push for further trade agreements, so that
they can make even more money from cheap labor in other countries in Central
America, South America, and Asia. We have to create trade policies that work
for the workers of America and Mexico and not just for the large corporations.
People need to get active and become involve in the public debate over trade
deals, so that their vote is taken into account.
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