The debate was intense. Politicians on both sides were fired up. The public advocated for change. But when it came down to the crucial moment, Congress failed to pass the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007, a bill that would have provided legal status and a path to citizenship for approximately 12 million undocumented immigrants.
Since the summer of 2007 immigration reform has not been taken up by Congress. Notably missing from the ongoing debate is a serious and honest discussion of why so many immigrants, more than 80 percent of whom are from Latin America, come to the United States.
Immigrants often leave their home communities and culture to travel hundreds of miles across an unforgiving desert, often falling victim to smugglers and the elements. Immigrants arrive in the United States, where they face discrimination, harassment, poor labor conditions and a culture of unwelcome.
And yet, over the years, the flow of people entering the United States without documents has steadily risen. (In recent years the immigration rate has dropped slightly, but has maintained an overall rise since the early 1990s).
There are many reasons why people leave their homes. One of the leading reasons is economic. People who are caught in a cycle of poverty catch a glimpse of a better life in the United States and leave.
According to the United Nations Millennium Project, “more than one billion people live on less than one dollar a day [and] . . . another 2.7 billion live on less than two dollars per day.” And U.S. policies have often played a role in exacerbating this vicious cycle.
U.S. trade and agricultural policies have played a direct role in the increase of immigrants from LatinAmerica. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a trade deal between the United States, Canada and Mexico, was implemented in 1994. The agreement enjoyed bipartisan support.
As a way of selling the measure to the public President Bill Clinton said, “There will be less illegal immigration because moreMexicans will be able to support their children by staying home.” This promise never panned out.
At the time of NAFTA’s implementation the number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. was about 3.9 million. The current figure is about 12 million, three times as many. More than two million Mexican corn farmers alone lost their livelihoods. NAFTA opened up Mexico’s markets and forced small Mexican farmers to compete with large U.S. agri-business.
The Mexican government began phasing out support for its farmers while the U.S. continued to provide subsidies for its farm industry. According to the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, the Mexican government cut overall investment in agriculture by 90 percent. Cheap U.S. imports were dumped on a vulnerable Mexican market, undercutting and destroying many livelihoods.
Moreover, U.S. subsidies benefit only a few. According to Oxfam America 78 percent of farm subsidies go to just 8 percent of all U.S. farmers. This great disparity is detrimental to family farms in the U.S. and to farmers in Mexico and other countries.
NAFTA and other similar trade agreements are based on a model that prioritizes the economic well being of a few. Trickle-down economic theory purports that economic policies should be designed to benefit corporations and eventually those benefits will trickle down to all people. NAFTA is now in its fifteenth year of implementation and this has never been the case.
Jayati Ghosh, a leading Indian economist, observes, “The recent growth was not inclusive. But unfortunately the [current economic] slump will be only too inclusive, forcing those who did not gain earlier to pay for the sins of irresponsible and unregulated finance, through their own loss of livelihood and reduced living standards . . . The neo-liberal economic model was always intellectually vacuous, but now we know it is also dangerous and destabilizing.”
The Obama administration faces many challenges. As they work to address the economic crisis, they must remember to put people first. Scripture is filled with examples of God’s concern for the poor and the oppressed. In keeping with this calling, policymakers must work to design policies that protect the wellbeing and basic rights of all people, including immigrants.
