Posted on 11/22/2002 10:47:08 PM PST by JohnHuang2
Edited on 07/12/2004 3:59:08 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
The Bush administration wants to grant amnesty to hundreds of thousands of Mexican illegal aliens now in the United States, according to the new U.S. ambassador to Mexico.
Tony Garza, sworn in this week at the White House, told reporters in Mexico City that reaching an accord legalizing the status of Mexican immigrants
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
Sergio Bustos
Gannett News Service
Nov. 23, 2002 12:00 AM
WASHINGTON - Two years of economic downturn haven't stemmed the flow of U.S. dollars into Mexico and Central America.
Immigrants living legally and illegally in the United States are expected to send home $13 billion in so-called remittances this year and $18 billion by the end of 2005, according to a report.
The nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center and the Inter-American Development Bank released the report based on data collected from the region's central banks.
Roberto Suro, executive director of the center, said the numbers reflect the "profound human bond between people who come here to work for long hours at low wages and the families they left behind."
The center also released results of a joint survey of almost 3,000 Hispanics conducted this year with the Kaiser Family Foundation.
That survey said that 47 percent of all foreign-born Hispanics in the United States regularly send money to their country of origin.
As long as there is a significant reform with our immigration, and the fact that we are able to control the borders.
Also, this is a good way to "reach out" to the Hispanics.
We cannot afford to alienate the growing voting block.
Good question. Personally I believe one day it will all crumble. We don't have honest money, we don't have honest banking and we sure don't have honest politicians. What will happen and when I do not know. Like looking at a rotted foundation on a house you know it can't stand it is just a matter of time. I live in New Jersey and we have a large influx of immigrants. Very large Asian and Arab populations in the North but I couldn't tell you the numbers of Hispanics other than it's large. In certain areas the Spanish men stand on corners in the early morning hours waiting for work. Contractors or land scrapers come by and hire them for the day. It's all off the books but lunch is included in the deal. Yes there are a lot of families here but there are a lot of single men whose families are in the old country and they mail the money home. That also goes for erotic dancers, eh, these are female though.
Well you could have just stopped at helping the banks. It is not helping the economy. Not the economy of the working American families. How can it?
[ It is Social Security. Our popluation has not reproduced in the numbers required to keep that ponzi scheme going. We need to import people to keep the tax base up and both parties know it.]
Now I have heard this before - but think about it. These people can't take care of themselves. They are not paying taxes. We are supporting them - some of us in the SS age bracket (well almost). How does that translate into taking care of the SS problem. If they are allowed to stay, it will be several generations before they are self-sufficient, if ever. How in the world are a bunch of people who cannot helpl themselves supposed to keep the SS system going?
What a cheap sob story. Have you ever freakin' asked!!? Have you ever asked a General Contractor or Construction Manager about whether they are obeying the law or not? Have you ever made the slightest effort to find one that did obey the law? No - I didn't think so.
Maybe we Arizonans should ship all the crap these criminals leave in our deserts up to Nashville and dump it all in your freakin' yard!
Instead of you committing business suicide you're one of the many causing our country to commit national suicide.
In you position of hiring contractors and such and keeping them in business, you could be a force for good in pressuring them to obey the law or to support contractors that do obey the law. But, no, either too lazy or too greedy you choose not to.
'Hometown clubs' send funds south to aid family, kin
Tessie Borden
Republic Mexico City Bureau
Nov. 23, 2002 12:00 AM
JALPA, Mexico - Migrant dollars run this Mexican town.
When those U.S. dollars combine with local pesos, they bring computers to elementary schools, put asphalt on dirt roads and build university classrooms.
The money, an expected $13 billion this year and Mexico's third-largest source of income, comes from "hometown clubs" in the United States made up of Mexican migrants who collect money through social events and send it back home.
Mexican President Vicente Fox says the money creates infrastructure and jobs that may keep migrants in Mexico. He tossed his support behind it by establishing a "Three-for-One" program that matches migrant remittances at the local, state and federal level to help develop towns in their home states.
The strongest clubs are in California and Illinois, traditionally popular migrant destinations with plentiful jobs in agriculture and migrant word-of-mouth.
Thanks to their rising numbers, Mexicans now are forming clubs in Arizona, once considered too close to the border to need clubs.
According to the 2000 census, 5 percent of the 9 million Mexicans in the United States live in Arizona, and they come from as far away as Chiapas, Mexico's southernmost state.
Josefina Philips, president of the Phoenix-based Club Sonora Mexico Inc., said the organization accepts members from all Mexican states but is not strong enough to send money for projects in hometowns.
Instead, it has lobbied with Mexican officials for road building in Sonora and has pooled resources to help migrants in Phoenix. Among its successes: a donation of orchestra instruments and sports uniforms to local schools.
"Wherever migrants arrive, they organize quickly," said Primitivo Rodriguez, a political analyst in Mexico City.
But what if the hometown club disagrees with the hometown about what to do with its money?
That happened here in Jalpa, and people on both sides of the border are watching negotiations as a possible blueprint to settle future disputes.
This town of about 13,500 is in Zacatecas, a migrant-sending state since at least the 1920s. Zacatecan clubs are among the best organized and largest in the United States. For years, the money they collect from beauty contests and dances has improved life for folks back home.
Zacatecas started Three-for-One first as a matching program between migrant groups and City Hall. Zacatecas Gov. Genaro Borrego Estrada, now a senator, added a state match in 1986.
Fox nationalized the program in April 2000, adding a federal match and completing the three-for-one formula. Estimates say the program could mean an infusion into Mexico's budget of as much as $61 million this year.
Government participation, though, imposed new rules, and the even stakes meant everyone fought for credit. Concern arose about clubs taking on government responsibilities, such as building schools, and some worried that mayors would use migrants as front men for pet projects.
"Everybody thinks it's magnificent," Rodriguez said, "but it's a car with four steering wheels."
The fight in Jalpa began in February when the Mayor's Office refused three of seven projects that the Los Angeles club Hermandad Jalpense, or Jalpense Brotherhood, wanted to fund with more than $2 million. Projects included adding computers to the library, adding restrooms and a storeroom to a kindergarten, and building a church in an outlying barrio.
Instead, Mayor Fernando Diaz Alonso asked the club to renovate the Leobardo Reynoso School near Town Hall, a project not in the original package. In a letter on their Web site, Hermandad officials said phone calls and meetings never cleared up the reasons for the changes. Hermandad canceled all projects, citing a lack of seriousness, contradictory information and insincerity from Diaz Alonso.
Jalpa officials say they didn't oppose Hermandad. New rules now bar using government money for religious or private institutions. The rules also set a hierarchy of immediate local needs and, within it, some projects looked superfluous.
"Sometimes, what the migrants want is not the same as what we need," said Victor Daniel Serna, Diaz Alonso's spokesman.
Both sides appeared to reach a deal in July when Diaz Alonso met with Hermandad and agreed to fund six of the seven projects. But last month, there was new unrest when Hermandad heard the church construction had stopped.
Meantime, Diaz Alonso forged ahead with the school renovation without Hermandad's help. He calls it Citizen's Initiative, a new program that basically cuts out clubs.
Near the end of 2002, only two of the original Three-for-One projects approved for this year have moved forward.
Serna said migrants don't always contribute their full financial share. Sometimes, they merely put their club name on a project so Town Hall can get state and federal money.
"It's fraud and it's not fraud," said Jorge Durand, who studies migrants at the University of Guadalajara. "It's what they call in Mexico a political move."
Whatever the name, if migrants don't put up money, Serna said, they shouldn't question its use.
Some also have asked why migrants should pay for projects that are clearly government duties, such as improving schools. Hermandad President Francisco Flores said migrants don't mind doing so because they ultimately help their countrymen.
Durand is realistic.
"When is the government going to attend to a community way at the tip of the hill that needs water? Never," Durand said. "The government should do it. But in this specific situation, (migrant help) is just as good."
As a result, migrants' pull with officials can't be denied, said Victor Diaz de Leon, the architect responsible for all city projects. More than once, he said, migrants have complained so much about rejected initiatives that the government gives in, even when they break the rules.
The Jalpa situation is not the first or last such fight: In Tecomates, Jalisco, the conflict was about city appointments. In Jerez, Zacatecas, the migrant candidate for mayor, Andrés Bermúdez, fought his electoral disqualification on the local club's Web site.
Hermandad members say they feel disillusioned and exhausted.
"This is very debilitating," Flores said. "These are structural problems that are not likely to be resolved."
Reach the reporter at tessie.borden@arizonarepublic.com.
Yes, I'm an American. Are you really a preacher?
If you don't think America is spreading its values and policies around the world, then it's rather funny that you're calling me a moron and telling me to leave the country.
Funny and pathetic, preacher.
I have a novel idea. How about running this country as it should be run - then 'reaching out' to Americans. How about educating people about America and how it should be run then 'reach out' to Americans. I will confess I am a little tired of hearing about 'reaching out' to someone because of their ethnicity. That is just wrong.
[We cannot afford to alienate the growing voting block.]
What growing block? I wish you could have seen the blue and red map for Texas int he last election. The entire border area was blue. These people are never going to be conservatives in any real sense. They are going to vote for the party that will give them the most goodies. NOw if the Republican party continues to pander to them - what does that do to the Republican party - it will be another arm of the Democratic party.
Let's try a novel approach and reach out to 'Americans' of all age, sex, ethnicty, skin color, income - see how that works for a change. You loose you way when you begin to base your party on people and not ideas.
Look up how well he did in the election after we've been supposedly overrun by Mexicans.
So, it's OK for you to do it because you believe that everyone else is doing it.
I assure you that I don't knowingly patronize any business that relies upon illegal labor. In fact, if I believe a business is hiring illegals I would not hesitate to make a call to the INS and have them investigate. I would never knowingly hire a contractor who had among his crew any illegals.
You do the math for me then. Explain why our unemployment rate isn't higher. Tell us why we don't have one American out of work for every Mexican employed here.
They are setting themselves up to be dependent on us forever.
No, they weren't. Our economy has grown by trillions of dollars per year. It is not a zero sum situation. We have far more people doing far more jobs than back in the "good old days" that you're remembering.
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