More than 350,000 Mexicans have returned home since U.S. attacks

The News (Mexico City) ^ | November 7, 2001

[sarcasm]

Illegal immigrants enter California by running into traffic on I-5 to avoid the Border Patrol. Usually Mexicans are busy trying to get into the U.S., but since the Sept. 11, thousands want to come home. File Photo, TheNewsMexico.com

More than 350,000 Mexicans have returned home since U.S. attacks
AFP - 11/7/2001

GUADALAJARA, Jalisco - More than 350,000 Mexicans have returned home in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. but that figure doesn't represent an alarming trend, said the director of the National Migration Institute.

The significant return of Mexicans who reside in the United States has to do with the fact that "contracts, mostly temporary ones, have expired and because the economic situation over there is not so great," said Felipe de Jesus Preciado.

Because of the current negative economic conditions that have prevailed since the attacks, he said, "350,000 men and women have returned to Mexico," adding in the coming months at least 150,000 more are expected to come home. This would bring the number of Mexicans "who prefer to live in their own country again" to a record 500,000 the official said.

Despite the nine percent increase in the return flow of immigrants over the same period last year, the trend isn't worrisome, Preciado assured.

More than 40 percent of returning immigrants enter through the international airport in Guadalajara prompting the government to open a migrant program office to assist and protect the rights of returning Mexicans.

The program was created in 1989 to help returning citizens, principally from the U.S., in processing legal documents and protect them from bureaucratic corruption.

There are currently 20 million people of Mexican origin living in the United States. Approximately 4 million were admitted legally in the 1990s, a figure 63 higher than the number admitted in the first 80 years of the 20th century.

According to recent government figures, Mexicans in the U.S. sent back a record 8 billion dollars between January and October. This represents more than 1 percent of the national GDP and is one of Mexico's largest sources of foreign income.

Translated by Armando Saliba

[Paulie]

"Still, I think I'd prefer a booming economy and the days before al-Qaeda and anthrax became household words."

I agree. A lot of things I used to complain about now seem insignificant by comparison.

[thathamiltonwoman]

Best news I've heard all day but don't Mexicans typically start going home in November? Quite a few take a month or two for the holidays.

[sarcasm]

I say, offer all illegal/undocumented immigrants the chance to obtain a fixed-term, conditionally renewable work visas, now.

Check into the history of the Bracero program and the current situation in Germany with their "temporary" workers - there is no one so permanent as a guest-worker. You might also check into the history of "Operation Wetback" - the forcible repatriation of Mexicans who were admitted under a guest-worker program such as you envision.

Do you also plan to sterilize the participants in this program? Do you believe that they will not procreate and give us a crop of anchor children? What would be the cost of educating these children - the taxes that they would pay would not cover the additional cost to the taxpayers. How much would this program cost in TANF benefits?

Does your plan envision employer provided health insurance so that the cost is nor fobbed off on the taxpayers? Is so, would you extent this requirement to the native-born worker? Have you considered the effect of such a program on the average wage of the lowest paid American worker? What would be the cost to the American taxpayers of providing unemployment insurance and welfare payments to this group?

[ken21]

ducky, it displeases god greatly that you discriminate against other people.

she says that you need to start acting like a normal person, or she'll hafta send you back to jumping for peanuts at the local zoo.

[WarHawk42]

Hey, what happened to freedom?

I kept hearing those illegals sneaked into America because they love freedom.

You mean it was all about money?

It always has been.  On both sides of the border.  For both the mexican worker and the company that hires them.  The later being the reason our federal government won't close the border no matter how many terrorists come in.  Dollars (profits) trump security of our borders.

WarHawk42

[Landru]

"Quack. I cannot wear Levis. You humans have all the luck."