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Mexicans will be heading north!!!

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April 19, 2008 09:44 AM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
Member Since:
February 19, 2007
Comment updated April 19, 2008 09:45 AM
TEZIUTLAN, Mexico — As the U.S. economy heads south, Mexicans may have to head north. www.mcclatchydc.com That’s the fear of many workers here, where the slowdown in the United States already has cut production at manufacturing plants whose output is largely sold in the United States .
“If it’s bad there, it will be worse here,” said Bartolo Juarez , 35, who makes jeans for Levis and Guess at a Teziutlan factory and already has discussed moving to the United States if his job here vanishes. His 12-year-old daughter, Gabriela, has broken down in tears more than once after hearing her parents talk about her father leaving for the States, her mother said.“It’s a sacrifice. I don’t want to go, but I know I can get a good-paying job in San Antonio ,” even in troubled economic times, Juarez said. It’s always easier to find work in the United States than in Mexico , he added, and for five times more money.Economists say that U.S. recessions historically are tougher on Mexico than they are on the United States , and that while U.S. officials say that border security measures, such as building a wall along the Mexican border, have reduced illegal immigration in recent months, they won’t hold back the flood of workers that’s likely if Mexican factories close.The majority of the 72,000 people who live in this rainy town tucked up in the cloud forests of the Sierra Norte mountains in central Mexico work in more than 30 factories that specialize in assembling pants for distribution in the United States .Rodrigo Martinez , the coordinator of the National Job Service in Teziutlan , estimates that 10 percent of the community already has gone to the United States in search of work after losing jobs here or deciding to find better pay there.As demand for Mexican-made pants declines in the United States , he expects more workers to go.“This community is almost 100 percent maquiladora,” he said, using the Spanish word for factories that assemble goods for U.S. consumption. “Closing some of those shops would affect us greatly.”Manufacturing is by far Mexico’s most vulnerable sector during a U.S. downturn, economists say. More than 80 percent of Mexican exports are destined to go north. A drop in U.S. demand would cut into Mexican production levels and employment.As the old adage goes, “When Uncle Sam sneezes, Mexico catches a cold.”Jaime Ros , an economics professor at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at Notre Dame , said the Mexican manufacturing industry already was experiencing a pinch from the U.S. economic downturn. Those who lose their jobs will “certainly add to the supply of immigrants” heading north, he said.Ros, who formerly taught at Mexico City’s Center of Investigation and Economic Studies , is skeptical that U.S. border-security measures will have a significant impact when so many desperate immigrants see the U.S. as their only option for work.While the crash of the U.S. housing market has reduced demand for immigrant workers in construction, immigrants are likely to find jobs at hotels, restaurants and other services that won’t be as affected by a U.S. recession.The U.S. learned how closely Mexico’s fate is tied to its economy in 2001. At the time, Mexico’s maquiladora industry was at its peak, with more than 3,000 companies employing about 1.2 million workers. Then the U.S. went into a recession after the dot-com crash. Hundreds of maquiladora plants closed as a result from 2001 to 2004 and more than 200,000 people lost their jobs.Maquiladora workers who lose their jobs are more likely than other Mexicans to move north, said Kathy Kopinak , a senior fellow at the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at University of California San Diego .Because many maquiladoras have been set up in border towns, Kopinak said, workers have family members and friends on both sides of the border who can assist in labor migration.Mexico hasn’t fallen into a recession, but several economists say that’s the direction the country is going if the U.S. recession is deeper than expected. Mexico’s economy grew 3.3 percent last year. Wachovia Corp. forecasts this year’s growth to slow to 2.5 percent. Others are less optimistic: The Economist Intelligence Unit forecast that Mexico’s growth would be just 1.9 percent this year. “The risk is that if we have a deeper, darker, longer recession than what we are expecting, then Mexico is going to catch a pretty bad cold and it could pull Mexico into a recession itself,” said Jay Bryson , a global economist at Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte . Mexican officials say their economy is more resilient now than in it was in 2001. They say that a pickup in automobile exports to Europe and Asia will help offset decreased demand from the United States . Central bank Governor Guillermo Ortiz said last month that Mexican exports to countries other than the U.S were growing by 30 percent a year. President Felipe Calderon has announced several initiatives intended to weather a U.S. economic slowdown. Last month, he announced a $5.6 billion stimulus package of tax breaks, discounts and bank loans. Last week, he called for sweeping changes in Pemex , Mexico’s ailing oil company and the country’s largest source of foreign exchange. Calderon’s initiatives may never be approved, however. Opposition legislators have seized control of Mexico’s Congress , some spending the night in sleeping bags, to protest the bill, which they claim is an effort to privatize the state oil company. Over drinks after their shift at an auto parts company that feeds the giant Volkswagen plant in Puebla, Mexico , Antonio Paredes , 24, and Jaime Galicia Alonso , 23, were discussing the likelihood of an economic downturn. Paredes said he’d already talked to his wife about accompanying him to the United States . He’s also talked with a co-worker about getting in touch with his son in Chicago , where Paredes is considering moving. Galicia said he’d do whatever he could to stay in Mexico , but he acknowledged that it will be tough. Many people from his village already have left for the United States . “If you lose your job and you can find another job, you stay in Mexico ,” Galicia said. “Otherwise you’re almost obligated to go to the United States .” 

April 19, 2008 10:01 AM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
Member Since:
September 28, 2007
Obligated my patootie.  Where in the hell do these scumbags get off having the attitude that they can just pick up and come in here and take a job from an American citizen?  If this government doesn't wake up and protect us from this illegal invasion there is going to be a bloodbath in the streets before too long.
April 19, 2008 10:52 AM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
Member Since:
February 19, 2007
I have to agree. It keeps on getting worse. Where in hell does it say we owe these people anything!!!!!!!!!! Government isn't taking care of WE th PEOPLE, yet they givethe illegal everything they need.

April 19, 2008 11:47 AM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
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February 19, 2007
Comment updated April 19, 2008 11:51 AM

White House  defends NAFTA in runup to meeting between Bush, Harper, Calderon 

Fri, 2008-04-18 18:03.

By: Beth Gorham, THE CANADIAN PRESSWASHINGTON - The U.S. administration is looking for ways to counteract a barrage of negative rhetoric about NAFTA from Democrats and persuade Americans the trade deal works, the White House said Friday. Dan Fisk, senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs, said the three North American leaders will address the issue next week when they meet in New Orleans for their fourth annual trilateral summit.Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, seeking support from voters who view NAFTA as a job-killer, have threatened to pull out of the free trade pact if it isn't renegotiated to include protections for workers and the environment. "There's nothing broken - why fix a success?" said Fisk, who noted three-way trade among the United States, Canada and Mexico has more than tripled to $1 trillion a year since NAFTA came into effect in 1994. "We want to find ways to, frankly, convince the American people...that this is an arrangement that's worked for us and it's also worked for our neighbours. It's been a win-win situtation."Some of the criticisms of NAFTA have made bigger headlines in Canada and Mexico than in the United States, he noted. Canada's Conservatives are vehemently opposed to reopening the deal and have suggested the favourable status enjoyed by Americans when it comes to Canadian energy exports could be on the line. U.S. trade experts and business leaders have been calling on President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexico's Felipe Calderon to make the case for NAFTA next week. All the talk from Democratic presidential hopefuls about reopening the trade deal is feeding into protectionist sentiments that don't serve anyone, they said. "If we start talking about backing out of NAFTA, what does that do to our credibility overall?" asked Jim Bacchus, a former executive at the World Trade Organization, "If we insulate and isolate ourselves from the rest of the world, we will become less competitive, not more," he told a forum Friday.Jim Jones, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, said NAFTA has increased trade and prosperity, while most job losses in the United States in the last 14 years are the result of technological change and greater efficiency. Some, including Bacchus, think it's probably a good idea to take what are now side provisions on workers and the environment and put them in the main body of the agreement. And he's not persuaded the whole deal would have to be reopened to do it. But the idea of dropping out altogether if there are no changes isn't credible, said economist Jeffrey Schott. "I classify that as political grandstanding. Withdrawal is not a viable option," he said. "It would be too costly to American jobs." Clinton and Obama have been emphasizing their opposition to NAFTA leading up to Tuesday's primary in Pennsylvania, which has suffered from steel plant shutdowns and the loss of manufacturing jobs. The U.S. recession has exacerbated unease over the impact of trade on U.S. workers. "A weakening economy is making trade a convenient scapegoat for every economic ill," said Tom Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "Reopening NAFTA would not only have potentially devastating economic consequences, it would violate the principles we've signed on to with two of our closest allies and neighbours." Canada's New Democrats are on side with Obama and Clinton, saying it's time for some fundamental changes."The harsh truth that Bush, Harper and Calderon won't face is that during 14 years of NAFTA, the citizens of our three countries have experienced growing inequality and stagnating wages," said NDP trade critic Peter Julian. "In the case of Mexico, the collapse of opportunity has been so severe that out-migration to the U.S. has more than doubled to an all-time high of nearly 500,000 people per year," he said. "The poor and the middle class have borne the brunt of the damage and dislocation, while the richest few concentrate unprecedented levels of wealth." 
April 19, 2008 11:49 AM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
Member Since:
February 14, 2007
Comment updated April 19, 2008 11:50 AM
p. hunt said: I have to agree. It keeps on getting worse. Where in hell does it say we owe these people anything!!!!!!!!!! Government isn't taking care of WE th PEOPLE, yet they givethe illegal everything they need.

 

Its NOT the government's responsibility to take care of you!!

Take care of yourself.  That includes doing whatever you have to do to make the illegals go back home.  It is evident that our government will not do that.

I have illegals next door to me.  I investigated until I discovered that they were on welfare.  I filed a welfare fraud report on them.  It took 6 months for the government to act, but they are no longer receiving welfare.

I discovered that the man has committed income tax fraud.  I filed a report on him a couple of weeks ago.

We have to take care of our own neighborhoods.  Don't depend on the government.



A government that is big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have. *************************************************************************************** Free Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean!
April 19, 2008 11:58 AM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
Member Since:
February 19, 2007

I'm not saying the government needs to take care of me. I'm saying the government needs to take care of Americans AND NOT LET THE ILLEGALS BE ON THE TOLL TAKING SERVICES FROM AMERICANS THAT NEED HELP. Housing market. Social benifits etc, etc etc. The list goes on and on. Plus GOVERNMENT IS SAVING ALL THE BANKS ETC. And letting WE THE PEOPLE fall to the wayside!



April 19, 2008 12:33 PM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
Member Since:
February 16, 2007
I agree.  If we don't revolt in our own small ways, we will never regain what is rightfully ours.  It is up to us to do what is necessary.  The time will most likely come when we'll have to operate outright to retain the most meager of standards.
April 19, 2008 12:55 PM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
Member Since:
May 22, 2007
Mammaw said: Obligated my patootie.  Where in the hell do these scumbags get off having the attitude that they can just pick up and come in here and take a job from an American citizen?  If this government doesn't wake up and protect us from this illegal invasion there is going to be a bloodbath in the streets before too long.

 

 Clapping Hands

Amen, Mammaw, Amen.

But I fear it is all a part of the plan to disolve the sovereignty of the United States of America.

I weep

 









GET CONGRESS ATTENTION! CHANGE YOUR W-4 AT WORK AND CLAIM 10 DEPENDENTS SO NO TAXES WILL BE TAKEN FROM YOUR PAYCHECK. WHEN THE MONEY STOPS COMING IN MAYBE THEY WILL REMEMBER THEY ARE SERVANTS TO WE THE PEOPLE.
April 19, 2008 12:56 PM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
Member Since:
February 19, 2007

Kaksdesign You are so right. I have done the protests, border watches, letters, faxes, phone calls and emails. Yet, I sometimes think, no matter what we do, no one is listening. Also so many people don't seem to have any idea about what is happening to this country and how it is going to effect our children and grandchildren

GUESS WE JUST NEED TO KEEP-ON-KEEPING-ON. SOMETIMES IT SEEMS A THANKLESS JOB.
April 19, 2008 02:34 PM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
Member Since:
February 16, 2007
Maybe not thankless, p. hunt, but maybe endless????Yell

TEXAN...NO - I WON'T FORGET THE ALAMO! "Where's the Fence???" RINO huntin' season started January 10th (but ended January 22nd)! FRED has left the building!!!! MITT has entered my world! Oops, MITT left my world too soon also (on February 7th)! Dang, can't catch a break -- but Hillary, Obama, and McCain aren't it either (nor Huckabee, Paul, Keyes, Nader, ad nauseum)!
April 19, 2008 02:46 PM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
Member Since:
April 1, 2007
No borders, no nationstates, a globalist dream. The migration of labor around the would, chasing jobs. We aint seen nothing yet.
April 19, 2008 05:22 PM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
Member Since:
February 13, 2007
txguy1 said:

Its NOT the government's responsibility to take care of you!!

Take care of yourself.  That includes doing whatever you have to do to make the illegals go back home.  It is evident that our government will not do that.

I have illegals next door to me.  I investigated until I discovered that they were on welfare.  I filed a welfare fraud report on them.  It took 6 months for the government to act, but they are no longer receiving welfare.

I discovered that the man has committed income tax fraud.  I filed a report on him a couple of weeks ago.

We have to take care of our own neighborhoods.  Don't depend on the government.

Awesome, just awesome TxGuy1!!!  That is flat out gettin it done!  The only thing I don't get is why you did not mention anyone going to jail for welfare fraud?  Hopefully IRS will get their pound of flesh and prove to be worthwhile for something.

One act of resistance at a time adds up...

SovereignMan
April 19, 2008 10:25 PM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
Member Since:
February 14, 2007
SovereignMan said:
txguy1 said:

Its NOT the government's responsibility to take care of you!!

Take care of yourself.  That includes doing whatever you have to do to make the illegals go back home.  It is evident that our government will not do that.

I have illegals next door to me.  I investigated until I discovered that they were on welfare.  I filed a welfare fraud report on them.  It took 6 months for the government to act, but they are no longer receiving welfare.

I discovered that the man has committed income tax fraud.  I filed a report on him a couple of weeks ago.

We have to take care of our own neighborhoods.  Don't depend on the government.

Awesome, just awesome TxGuy1!!!  That is flat out gettin it done!  The only thing I don't get is why you did not mention anyone going to jail for welfare fraud?  Hopefully IRS will get their pound of flesh and prove to be worthwhile for something.

One act of resistance at a time adds up...

SovereignMan

Below is the Mission Statement of the Office of Inspector General of the Health and Human Services in Texas.

Mission Statement:

We protect the integrity and ensure accountability in the health and human services programs, as well as the health and welfare of the recipients of those programs, by identifying, communicating and correcting activities of waste, fraud or abuse in Texas.

In performing its mission, the office is required to set clear objectives, priorities, and performance standards, including:

  • Coordinating investigative efforts to aggressively recover Medicaid overpayments
  • Allocating resources to cases that have the strongest supportive evidence and the greatest potential for recovery of money
  • Maximizing the opportunities for referral of cases to the Office of the Attorney General

===================

I would not rule out some jail time just yet.  That may be coming.



A government that is big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have. *************************************************************************************** Free Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean!

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