��The US, through their superior technology and subsidies, has completely paralyzed the Mexican market for staples like corn and beans�

As time went on the US continued to flood the corn market… after the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994,

the US-Mexico relationship became even more troubled - ��Simon V.

Class Work Borders Overviews Immigration Organizations and Policy: After researching and expanding our understanding of NAFTA and the policy’s affects, Borders prepared for a debate that looked at the varying opinions of large organizations around the issue of immigration in the United States today. Currently, new immigration legislations that reflect some to no aspects of these varied opinions are waiting to be passed in Congress. In groups, each represented organization (listed below) divided the major concerns of immigration to create our policy statements and proposal. Read these students’ final papers that conclude their opinions about immigration legislation and where the United States should turn for change Immigration Policy by Liu Nagayoshi My Stand on Immigration Policy by Betty Collins

A Closer Look Click on the bolded links below Immigration Policy: - NAFTA - Colonia Chilpancingo Class Work - Final immigration papers - Class debate Highlights from the Trip - Casa del Migrantes - Other high schools - U.S. Border Patrol - Maclovia Rojas - May Day Expressions - Chicano park - A student’s poem More Information - Helpful links

Policy options in the debate:

Closed Borders: Federation for Immigration Reform (FAIR)

Students: Cathy, Sasha, Riley, Sarah

As representatives of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), we are presenting the expanded and dedicated changes that must be allocated to this issue in order to see change. The immigration reform bill of the 109^th Congress took steps in the right direction by increasing border and internal security through law enforcement such as funding for border construction and border patrol, sanctions against the employers using undocumented workers and their cheap labor to their advantage, documentation fraud and more. Although the bill established initiative for such changes, the actual enforcement taken was minimal and produced few results.

FAIR presents our immigration policy statement to support the common belief amongst U.S. citizens that our nation's immigration policies must be reformed to serve the national interest. With over one million legal and illegal immigrants entering the U.S. each year, we are seeing more and more negative impacts on education, health care, government budgets, employment, crime and more. In response, our major initiatives look to the funding and enforcement of enhanced security programs. This includes not only border construction and border patrol agents, but also agents for internal inspection and fluidity of our programs. Overall these changes will bring the United States back into control over its immigration; FAIR would like to see levels of immigration return to the traditional number at about 300,000 per year. FAIR also does not support the inclusion of a temporary worker act and would reconsider all funding made from this program that generally hurts not only the foreign worker but our American workers as well (fairus.org).

Stop illegal immigration but increase guest worker options: Essential Worker Immigration Coalition Students: Andy, Max, Liu, Casey Our proposal also understands as we have stated before that immigrant labor is an important factor in helping to keep our economy stable.We would propose an increase in the guest worker program to allow 400,000 new guest workers into this country to help fill jobs that American workers are not willing to take.This program will offer legal status, as temporary workers, to the millions of undocumented workers in the United States.These guest workers will be able to work in the United States for two years and then must return to their home country for one year.This process may be repeated up to three times which will allow workers to work in the United States for a maximum of six years.We will also offer incentives for immigrants to return to their countries after their guest worker visas are expired so that we do not have the problem that we have now of many workers overstaying their visas. This new program allows workers who are currently working illegally to come out of hiding and participate in America’s economy legally.Data shows that the American workforce is increasingly becoming smaller and older. It is estimated that by 2010 the average age of our workforce will be 40.This will be a crisis that we must address as the prime working age population, 25-34 will also be in decline.While this is happening our economy will continue to create considerable numbers of low-skill jobs.Today 7 out of 10 jobs require only on the job training and it is immigrants who will be able to work here legally under this new legislation that will be able to fill these jobs.Expanded guest worker programs will help to meet the need that an expanding economy needs to have an adequate worker supply.A guest worker program allows employers to fill needed jobs and help our economy stay stable while giving legal hard-working immigrants the same protection that American workers are afforded.We along with many economists believe that the immigrant workforce adds to the economy rather than depleting our resources.Under our new proposal, however, there will be no doubt that our economy will grow as these foreign workers will be paying taxes and there will be no use of government services without contributions to society. We can look to somewhat recent history to see the benefits of a guest worker program. The Bracero Program that lasted from 1942 to 1964 and allowed nearly 5 million Mexican workers to come to America and work mainly for the agricultural sector.� Their work was greatly appreciated by Americans as it helped America become a leader in agriculture and prosper during those years. This new guest worker program not only gives us the benefit of using foreign born workers to help our economy but will stop the exploitation that American employers were accused of during the first Bracero Program. With our proposal we will provide an extremely compassionate system where workers will have the right to change jobs, earn fair wages, and have the right to a healthy work environment.

The Centrists: Brookings Institute

Students: Betty, Ben, Adora, Rolando

This major centrist proposal is known as the McCain-Kennedy Proposal which advocates the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act. The proposal suggests that three-year renewable work visas can be granted to undocumented workers and permanent work status can be applied for once undocumented workers have worked for 6 years in the US, have studied English and have kept a clean criminal record (all of this at a small price). Immigrants wishing to apply for legal entrance into the US can pay $500 for a work visa if they have secured a job in the US ahead of time or if there are enough job opportunities to accommodate them (Audrey Singer). We are in complete agreement with this proposal.

 An illegal immigrant is an immigrant who has crossed the Mexico-US border without following the US immigration laws. We realize that the definition of an illegal immigrant is very different across the country. There are those who do not think another human being can be illegal, and there are those who feel that all setting a foot in America without a visa is so illegal that they might personally accompany border patrol to an immigrant’s deportation. Disregarding these perceptions, we state that all those who have violated US immigration laws are here illegally and we will attempt to define illegality by allowing for there to be an alternative. The problem now glaringly obvious is that our immigration laws are being violated too often, in fact, several million times too often. The only way in which to preserve US immigration law is to legalize those who have broken it and prevent future violation of the law.

The US needs to recognize the role of immigrants in our current economy and address the problem of more than 12 million undocumented workers in our country. Doing this will require examining the economic, civic, and social roles of the immigrants. The programs that need to be implemented are an earned legalization program that recognizes the work of each illegal immigrant, an Impact Aid Program that would help the state and communities handle the legalization of undocumented workers, and a New Americans Initiative program that would help integrate immigrants into the American society using local governments and charitable organizations (Audrey Singer). We support the Democratic Party’s stance on the issue. “Undocumented immigrants within our borders who clear a background check, work hard and pay taxes should have a path to earn full participation in America” (Democratic Party on Immigration).

Work should also be done to unify families, including handing out visas to relatives of newly legalized immigrants who have cleared the background check, pay their taxes, and are dedicated to work. We will increase the number of visas available to all immigrants to approximately 480,000 a year. Roughly half this number (double the former number of 140,000) will be given employment-based visas and a little less than half will be given purely family-based visas (Tsao 4).

Temporary worker programs should be continued so as to offer immigrants a trial period in the US. Worker visas will be available to each worker for three years and then renewable for three more years. After four of these years they can choose to apply for permanent resident status. In this way it is only a temporary worker program with the worker’s consent. Immigrants must be able to receive “safety net services” that protect them from deportation for every minor offense (this will be paid for by their taxes) and ties into due process protections for the immigrants (Thomas). Corruption should be closely watched for in guest worker programs and employers who exploit their undocumented workers should face punishment; this reaches almost $35,000 and 6 months imprisonment for hiring alone (Tsao 2).

Think of this proposal not as a reward for those who have committed illegal acts, but rather a restoration of law and peace in the US. It is not possible to be able to locate all illegal immigrants currently in our country without taking away the fear of deportation in the hopes that they will reveal themselves. Without this compromise we will stay a country with millions of illegal immigrants, something which is impermissible and invalidates the laws of any nation. The entrance of legal immigrants into the US should be encouraged as much as possible. If immigrants know how easy it is to obtain a temporary work visa and eventually apply for permanent residency, they will be far less likely to trade that security for the uncertainty of crossing the border illegally. We have expanded the number of visas to be issued enough so that there will be very few immigrants waiting, for a long period of time, to enter the country. We trust that a doubling of the border patrol force and funding to 20,000 agents and $20 billion respectively will help curb illegal immigration and provide national security measures as well.

Protect immigrants’ rights/ restrict illegal immigration: AFL/CIO

Students: Simon, Anwar, Jason, Anna

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, also known as the AFL-CIO, takes a strong human rights standpoint on the current immigration debate. Those who have gone through the legal channels and are now in this country should not be viewed as “illegal citizens”. No person can be illegal, as, in truth, we are all one in the same. The people who call themselves Americans are all immigrants in one sense or another, as we are a nation of immigrants. This label of “illegal immigrants” creates a sort of second class of people, who are not allowed the same fundamental rights that we hold dear as Americans.One of the most effective ways to eliminate the label of illegal immigrant is to grant amnesty to those who would fall under umbrella of bigotry. While the current people who are here illegally should be granted amnesty, in the future there should be a deterrent, one of a twice or three times longer wait for those who continue to come illegally.

Plans like the Guest Worker Program and Seasonal Visas must be stopped, as they create an exploited group of workers whose lives are in the hands of seemingly heartless companies. They are pushed to the human limits of work, as well as forced to work at super low wages or face deportation or abuse. Also, due to the “illegal status” once again, a group like the AFL-CIO is unable to unionize and support these workers. By unionizing all of these workers, the workers of America, its backbone, would be able to determine what they all want for wages, as well as working conditions.

At the same time as all of this national reform is going on, there must also be international reform. The beast that is NAFTA must be abolished, and more influence must be put on the Mexican economy to create new jobs inside of the country. By creating a stronger Mexican economy, fewer desperate workers will attempt dangerous crossings illegally, and if they still desire, can come here legally. At the same time, however, we must help to control our border, and help keep the country under control. In this day and age, there is some threat from outside areas to our people and livelihood, and by helping to create a stronger border, it will help create an even greater safe haven for people to come to, as they have throughout history.

Open borders: National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights

Students: Lucy, Sam, Jevon, Andrea

Clearly an adequate border policy must be devised in order to guarantee the future economic and social stability of the United States. An open border policy is the only sensible solution that is humanitarianly sound and economically beneficial. In order to make possible the implementation of an open border policy and the adoption of a bilateral trade, worker’s rights, and environmental protection agreement, funding in the United States must be redirected to new programs and facilities. With an open border policy must come the documentation of all immigrants crossing the border. In order to do this, border crossing checkpoints along the border can be moved to urban centers in which immigration would be concentrated. These centers can be renovated to documentation stations in which immigrants would be documented and directed to possible employment. In order to battle terrorism and narcotics trafficking, a possible agreement between the United States and Mexico can be made to create national identification databases. This national database between the US and Mexico would provide all citizens with identification cards stating country of origin, biographical information, and criminal records.

An open border policy requires adequate assimilation and immersion programs in order to prepare Mexican workers for labor within the United States. Funding for such things as a border wall and guest workers programs can be redirected. For the fiscal year of 2007, the United States has allotted $7.84 billion for US customs and Border Security. (cbp.gov) With the legalization of immigrant workers will come a huge increase in federal and state taxation. The open border group would allocate the money acquired from the legal taxation of immigrants and use parts of the Border Security budget in order to support educational programs, federal housing, documentation stations, and an international identification database. In order to provide ample immersion opportunities, Mexican workers must be educated, made aware of their rights, and taught English. The next step is to provide tolerable living conditions for workers through federal housing programs. Eventually, the adoption of an open border policy will not only provide opportunity for Mexicans in the United States economy, but it will guarantee and secure the safety and stability of both the United States’ and Mexico’s economy.

Below, taken from the New York Times, is an overview of the bills that have been considered in Congress. Read the recent article from the New York Times that explains the progress recently made in agreement over a new immigration policy. If these changes are made, it will be the greatest change given to the United States’ immigration policy in more than twenty years.

Senators in Bipartisan Deal on Immigration Bill by Robert Pear and Jim Rutenberg