[x]

>> Remember that a big selling point of NAFTA was that it would alleviate illegal immigration?

> Yeah, I remember that. "If NAFTA passes, 'they' won't be coming up here." Noone jumped them on that.

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[It is a myth that] NAFTA will reduce illegal immigration. As manufacturing in northern Mexico expands, hundreds of thousands of Mexican workers will be drawn north. They will quickly find that wages in the Mexican maquiladora plants cannot compete with wages anywhere in the US. Out of economic necessity, many of these mobile workers will consider illegally immigrating into the US. In short, NAFTA has the potential to increase illegal immigration, not decrease it.

Source: Save Your Job, Save Our Country, by Ross Perot, p. 72 , Jan 1, 1993

[Oatka]

[Perot]As manufacturing in northern Mexico expands, hundreds of thousands of Mexican workers will be drawn north. They will quickly find that wages in the Mexican maquiladora plants cannot compete with wages anywhere in the US. Out of economic necessity, many of these mobile workers will consider illegally immigrating into the US.

So true. My sister had a place about 100 miles down the Eastern side of Baja Calif. After NAFTA kicked in, she asked some of the locals about working at the new plants there. Almost to a man, they responded like "Are you crazy? Why should we do the same job down here as at lower wage?"