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

[Don Myers]

The whole thing is a joke anyway. Our welfare system and our immigration system have more holes than swiss cheese.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

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

BULLSPLATTER

[ken21]

it's money these people have earned.

have you ever seen the poverty in rural mexico?

many people on this forum advertise themselves as "christian", but i really doubt it.

we're nearing the holidays, and many illegals return home until february, when agriculture needs them in california to pick strawberries, etc.

[FITZ]

Obviously the rich Mexicans have no Christianity because they're the ones trying to get the poor ones out of their own homeland and force non-Mexicans to provide for them. It's not true charity for us to do for people what they must do for themselves, Mexico is a very wealthy country in resources, it needs to make some deep changes so that it's citizens aren't required to leave. We can't be their safety valve forever, it's time they make those changes.

[ken21]

mexico is a very racist country. the white mexicans control everything. most of the mexicans we see here are indians, dark-skinned, and have no opportunities in mexico.

agreed that mexico needs change.

but, our economy needs a continual 2.1-2.2 birthrate in order to work. in the late 70s the american birthrate dipped to 1.7. the baby boomer generation and succeeding generations did not reproduce as white americans prior did.

it was no wonder that illegal immigration was allowed to burst in the 80s and 90s.

now the american birthrate has returned above replacement, 2.0.

i don't think it's an issue of mexicans. if mexicans stayed home and our birth rate was low, both american political parties would allow other nationals in.

[Cold Heat]

Harvest is over and so are most of the jobs....

[MissAmericanPie]

Don't pop a string on your violin there, they are taking 8 billion illegally out of our country this year. Money that would/should go to house payments, car payments, clothes, food, entertainment, that our business's need to survive and prosper, and yet here we are in a recession, but they are not leaving before having cost us millions in WIC to feed their kids, free medical clinics, using our school system, and generally being parasites.

Where do your loyalties lie, and where is your compassion for our citizens and our nation? We have already lost a ton of jobs to Mexico from companies moving there for cheap labor only to find that now Mexicans are talking unionizing because it is not enough money, and it may not be enough money. However that is their personal problem and they should deal with it IN Mexico. They should clean out their corrupt government, and riot there, NOT demonstrate in LA for Cali, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, to be carved out into their little nation of Azatlan. If our government wants to do something, do it for Mexico, and make it habitable, but they can't or won't because of the corruption there. We cannot and should not even consider letting the entire population of the earth settle in our country period, or suck our blood like parasites while contributing nothing but slave labor that drags down the standard of living here.

[ken21]

get real!

they earned this money and where they chose to send it, is their business.

you people are NOT christians.

[A CA Guy]

350,000? Have to wonder how many of those were their children in our California schools at $10,000 a year each?

Sounds like a boost to the budget.

[boycott]

Hey, they want the rights and freedom of our citizens. We should let them go defend this freedom for us in Afghanistan or they need to leave.

[ken21]

you people need to take econ 100-101 and learn a bit about our economy.

these immigrants are not "parasites".

i interact with them daily and they are hard working and contribute taxes from their earnings, just as you do.

[FITZ]

I don't really mind the day workers who work in the US and return at the end of the day to Mexico, and people who really want to be patriotic Americans are also great, but it's those people living in the projects but flying their Mexican flags so proudly and demanding everything in Spanish that irk everyone around here. And by around here I mean mostly Hispanic Americans who also find that repugnant. Mexicans aren't a monolithic group, you do find some who are great people, some who are working temporary jobs in the US who are hard workers and grateful for an opportunity to feed their families but will return to Mexico because it's their homeland. Here we see all types.

[oyez]

migrating south for the winter.

Construction season is ending.

[ken21]

do you get upset when you see the confederate flag?

it's the same thing. the people that display it don't have much, and their flag is all they have.

in a neighborhood near me, those who were displaying the mexican flag have started to display the american flag since 9.11.

i see mexicans assimilating daily. it really amazes me.

for example, a young indian woman i met 4 years ago couldn't speak english. she started flipping burgers at carl's jr and cleaning the parking lot. now her english is great, she's an ass't mgr, and her husband's just purchased a brand new ford f150 on credit--helping out YOUR economy.

[pnz1]

Many of them are not paying income taxes and are taking advantage of our generous "free" healthcare, food, and housing programs.

[Semaphore Heathcliffe]

you people are NOT christians.

This forum isn't promoted as a Christian forum. No one but you has mentioned Christianity on this thread.

[ken21]

thanks for clarifying that.

[MissAmericanPie]

Oh gee, they contribute taxes do they? So you pay them more than minimum wage? Does what they pay in, cover the cost of what they take out? Is there some type of tax form that gets them back most of what they pay in, yes/no?

Pretty strange for a slave wage employer/owner/lawbreaker using illegal labor and ignoring our laws against it, to lecture people on their Christianity while showing no compassion for his own country.

No one is saying some of these people are not nice, maybe, we don't really know because they are not in charge yet, but they are not Americans, and when they invade our borders in their numbers they don't care if they hurt our economy or anything else over here, which I don't consider nice of them. If America fell apart tomorrow they would just go home, they have no stake here and no loyalty to it. The only political action they care about is what benefits them as illegals. They are Mexican citizens if you ask them, here for the cash.

So forgive me if I don't hang my head in shame over my common sense, clear as crytal, acknowledgement of basic facts.

[ken21]

you have no understanding of how our economy works, and you're full of hate.