More on NAFTA and Corn: Destroying Mexico

By David Seth Michaels from The Dream Antilles



Mexican Corn Field


Last month, both the US and Mexican officials were publicly praising NAFTA while Mexican farmers begged for help.

According to Reuters:

U.S. officials trumpeted an end to farm trade restrictions under NAFTA, the controversial North American trade deal, on Friday, while Mexican farmers vowed to take to the streets to protest liberalization they fear will run them into the ground. /snip

Mark Keenum, U.S. undersecretary for farm and foreign agriculture, said the agreement had been a win for farmers in both countries, "creating not only dramatic growth in two-way agricultural trade, but providing our farmers, ranchers and processors with the potential (for) new export opportunities."

This is some kind of a malicious joke. NAFTA is no "win win". It's really a disaster for Mexican subsistence farmers, US immigration policy, and bio diversity. The only winner is US agribusiness.

Mexican Farmers And Immigration
Mexican farmers cannot see NAFTA as a win. Not by a long shot. They recognize it as a disaster.

[T]he changes [brought by NAFTA] are deeply unpopular in Mexico, where farmers fear unrestricted imports will depress prices and stir competition in producing white corn, which has been grown since the Aztec times.

Most of Mexico's three million corn producers and half a million bean producers make a living on small farms that are a far cry from the sweeping, industrialized operations that characterize U.S. agriculture.

Corn tariffs have gradually been phased out since the trade deal was implemented, and imports of U.S. yellow corn to Mexico, mostly used in animal feed, have skyrocketed. They now account for close to 35 percent of Mexican consumption.

Some background:

*At the start of the year Mexico lifted 14 years of protection for corn, beans, milk and sugar under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that took effect in 1994. The regional trade pact groups Mexico, the United States and Canada.

* Mexican lawmakers demanded [on 1/4/08 that] President Felipe Calderon consider renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement and meet with farmers, who fear a flood of cheap U.S. imports.

* "This is a national security issue," said Samuel Aguilar, of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, in a speech before the Congress. "The agricultural chapter of NAFTA could generate a social conflict." /snip

Mexico may lose as many as 350,000 farm jobs this year because of competition from the U.S.

* Some Mexican farmers say competing against highly subsidized U.S. goods could put thousands out of work on top of about 2 million Mexican farm jobs lost over the last decade.

NAFTA is a recipe for complete disaster in Mexico:

Timothy Wise, a professor at Tufts University in Massachusetts, calls unblunted liberalization in those sensitive goods a "recipe for disaster" for those who depend on Mexico's vulnerable farm sector.

"Just as the U.S. became the largest supplier of animal feed, it has the capacity to become a dominant supplier of dry beans and white corn, undermining markets in Mexico and creating a dependence on external sources for the two very clear main staple foods," he said.

Of course, this economic disaster will lead directly to the displacement of small, Mexican farmers, and act as an incentive to those farmers' forced migration to the US. In short: NAFTA's destroying Mexican subsistence farmers and forcing them through economic pressure to leave failing, subsistence farms and enter the US. I've discussed this before here and here.

A Bio-diversity Disaster
But there are additional, heavy costs. NAFTA will have a gigantic, negative biodiversity impact. There are two primary kinds of corn grown in the US, white and yellow. Yellow is mostly animal food. And in the US, unlike Mexico, corn is a genetically modified crop. "In the US, by 2006 89% of the planted area of soybeans, 83 percent of cotton, and 61 percent maize was genetically modified varieties." source. Even before the end of NAFTA, genetically modified corn presented a problem in Mexico:

Rural and urban activists throughout the Americas are calling on grain exporters, the biotech industry, and the US and Canadian governments to stop dumping untested and unlabeled genetically engineered corn on Mexico and other nations, where irreplaceable corn varieties are being damaged by "genetic pollution." In Mexico researchers have detected widespread contamination of traditional varieties of corn, caused by surreptitious imports of genetically engineered corn into Mexico by grain export giants such as Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill

source

And now, there is even greater reason to be concerned:

Those who want to introduce bioengineered corn in Mexico appear to be gaining an upper hand.

A law to allow experimental planting of GMO strains in northern Mexico was passed two years ago but was never signed. Agriculture Minister Alberto Cardenas said this week the law could go into effect in a matter of weeks.

"We don’t want to be behind. We have to start testing now," said Catalino Flores, a geneticist working with Salazar’s organization in San Salvador El Seco.

Corn yields in the United States can be more than three times those in Mexico, according to Mexican growers.

"There will be drought resistant corn in 5 to 10 years. If you don’t plant something like that when everyone else is, you’ll be down the drain," Flores said.

About half of U.S. yellow corn sent to Mexico comes from genetically modified seeds. Mexico’s agriculture minister reckons GMO seeds smuggled in from the United States are already being planted in northern Mexican states.

So what's the big deal? It's fairly simple: GMO corn threatens non-GMO corn species, undermining bio-diversity.

[S]some farmers worry that introducing GMO seeds could contaminate hundreds of wild blue, red and multicolored corn varieties planted for centuries in Mexico.

"The farmers who want to plant transgenic corn are irresponsible, they don’t care if the are putting the genetic heritage of Mexico at risk," said Victor Suarez head of a small farmers’ group that wants keep trade protections for corn and beans.

The ancient Maya, who lived in southern Mexico over 1,000 years ago, believed the gods made men from maize. The plant was adopted over 500 years ago by Spanish conquerors and spread to the rest of the world.

source.

So to make a long story short, not only will NAFTA destroy Mexican subsistence farming and contribute to migration from Mexico to the US for former subsistence farmers, it also will endanger the bio diversity of corn in Mexico (if not the entire hemisphere).

NAFTA is an unmitigated disaster for Mexico. In the US, we don't discuss its impact on Mexico, we only discuss how it opened the market in Mexico for US corn and other products. There will be huge profits to agribusiness in the US from new markets. But hidden from view in the traditional media, there will be economic devastation for small farmers in Mexico, displacement of families from their farms, and ecological destruction.

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Summary only...

Mexican Farmers Protest NAFTA

By David Seth Michaels from The Dream Antilles


The Megamarch In Mexico City, Jan. 31, 2008

Chanting "Sin maiz, No hay pais" (Without Corn, the country doesn't exist), Mexican farmers by the tens of thousands demonstrated in Mexico City against NAFTA.

AP reports:

Led by a column of tractors, tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through downtown Mexico City on Thursday to protest recent trade openings that removed the last tariff protections for ancestral Mexican crops like corn and beans.

Chanting "Without corn, the country doesn't exist!" farmers and farm activists from across the nation demanded the Mexican government renegotiate the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, to reinstate protection for basic crops.

Farmers here say they can't compete with bigger U.S. farms which receive more government support. Under the terms of NAFTA, Mexico got a 15-year protection period to improve its farms, but that phase-in period ended Jan. 1, and Mexican farms — mostly tiny plots of 12 acres or less — still lag behind.

"The truth is, we can't compete, that is why we're demonstrating ... because we're really getting hit hard," said Telespor Andrade, 44, a weather-beaten farmer from central Mexico who grows corn and beans on about 7 acres of land.

Andrade is typical of Mexican farmers who grow corn for subsistence. I've written about this extensively here and the inescapable conclusion is that NAFTA is making Mexican farmers leave their homes and emigrate the the US. That's right. US economic policy is directly forcing farmers to leave their homes and migrate to the US, with or without documents.

The demonstrations, about which you will probably not read in your local newspaper, are reported all over the Mexican press. Here's Proceso and El Universal, for example. And for good reason:

Protesters pastured their cows outside the Mexican Stock Exchange on the city's main boulevard, and burned a tractor at a nearby monument to the 1910 Mexican Revolution.

Mexican officials say farmers are getting help, and that Mexico's corn production is rising. But activists say farm policies have benefited mainly big producers, not small producers who make up the vast majority of farmers here. U.S. farmers, they say, have much better transport and distribution systems, lower costs and bigger subsidies.

"We're up against all the might of the developed countries," said Martin Perez Santiago, 60, a farmer from the Gulf coast state of Veracruz. "We can't compete because of a lack of support, a lack of subsides, technology, better seed varieties."

When Santiago mentions "better seed varieties," the sound you hear is the door in Mexico opening for genetically modified seed from the US rather than the indigenous species that have been doing quite well for centuries. In other words, not only is NAFTA a disaster in terms of immigration from Mexican family farms, it's an ecological disaster in the making.

This is an extremely important story. NAFTA has created consequences that are disastrous for Mexico. It's forcing subsistence farmers to flee to the US. It's pressuring them to introduce GMA corn. It's already requiring Mexico, the birthplace of corn, to purchase animal corn from the US. It's creating an ecological disaster.

This is an important story, but I don't expect it to be discussed in the presidential race in the US, and I don't expect it to have much of a life in the traditional US press.

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Looking to the Root Causes of Migration: NAFTA

Over the last few years, over 1000 migrants have perished making the hazardous journey through the desert to make new lives in "el Norte." Some were small coffee growers from Vera Cruz, chicken farmers from Jalisco, or vegetable growers from Guadalajara. Others were indigenous subsistence farmers from the Chiapas highlands no longer able to eek out a living. Still others were Guatemalan migrant workers who could not find work on either side of Mexico's border and jumped on El Tren de Muerte (The Death Train) in Tapachula for the first leg of their journey, boarding alongside Salvadorans escaping decades of political upheaval and Hondurans escaping crushing poverty.

Between 6 and 7 million people have taken the arduous journey north, many within the last ten years, most of them coming from poor agriultural areas that are no longer able to support their populations. Yet, with all the debate about reforming US immigration policy and securing the borders, we have not heard one solid proposal to address the root causes of this massive migration.

The question of why so many must leave their homes and families to simply survive is rarely mentioned, but remains the missing piece in the comprehensive immigration reform puzzle.

Most people recognize that the economic conditions in Central and South America drive much of the current migration. It's widely acknowledged that most sender nations suffer from economic inequities that leave the vast majority of their populations living in abject poverty while a small elite ruling class controls most of the wealth.

In Mexico for instance, nearly half of its 106 million people live in poverty, yet it has more billionaires than Switzerland.

But what has fostered these inequities and in fact exacerbated them over the last ten or fifteen is not widely discussed. It is this deeper understanding of the complexities of the issue that seems to be absent from much of the debate.

From the immigration hawks we hear that a mix of government corruption and an inability or unwillingness on the part of people from these countries to effect change has led to the problems in this region. Lou Dobbs tells us that a greedy Mexican government intentionally ships its poor here to avoid upheaval. Others admonish the undocumented migrants living in the US, suggesting they return home and work to fix their own countries rather than look for acceptance here.

Those supporting comprehensive reform skirt around the issue of causation, looking instead for methods to regulate and accommodate this increasing flow of migrants. Looking to change or shuffle quotas and grant temporary worker status to a large percentage of newly arriving migrants, their plans are also flawed and incomplete. They don't address the reasons this migration is taking place.

But if we are to ever effect meaningful reform of our flawed immigration system we must start to face the tough questions and look for real solutions. We must start to look at causation and how to change the current paradigm.

This video, produced by the Teamsters Union, long-time opponents of NAFTA, looks at one of these root causes of migration.



video link

Admittedly, this Teamster produced video, like everything that comes from the forces at play on the greater Washington stage, presents a picture painted by those with an agenda that doesn't always coincide with the greater concerns of migrants. But with that said, it certainly raises some of the right questions …..questions we need to start to address.

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US border policy increases migrant deaths 20-fold in Arizona desert

In the mid-nineties US policy towards Mexico changed in two significant ways that eventually set the stage for the current "immigration crisis." In January 1994, NAFTA went into effect and a new era of prosperity and progress was to begin in Mexico. At the same time, a new strategy was enacted along the southern border intended to stem the flow of unauthorized migrants. The policy of “prevention through deterrence” involved quintupling border-enforcement expenditures, building new fortified checkpoints, high-tech surveillance, and deploying thousands of additional Border Patrol Agents. Additionally, border barriers were built along portions of the California and Texas border to prevent migrants from entering through the most highly trafficked urban areas.

More than a decade later it's become evident that the promises of these two policies, rather than bringing economic change to Mexico and decreasing unauthorized migration to the US, have led to conditions that more than doubled the flow of immigration….and brought added death to the border.

NAFTA, while bringing trade and investment to Mexico, has had unintended negative consequences on both sides of the border for working people and the poor. Whole segments of the US manufacturing sector have been relocated to Mexico resulting in job loss for US workers. At the same time, the lifting for trade restrictions in Mexico have allowed cheaper US commodities to enter the country, decimating Mexican agricultural markets and throwing millions of small farmers out of business. Additionally, the availability of even cheaper labor sources in places like China has forced manufacturing wages to go down.

As for the policy of "prevention through deterrence", all it has really accomplished in the past thirteen years is a movement of the routes of migration from relatively safe urban areas like San Diego and El Paso to the hostile desert and mountainous regions where enforcement is difficult. This "funneling effect" of forcing migrants into least hospitable areas has had devastating effects for those on both sides of the border. A new study just released by the University Of Arizona examined the consequences of shifting migration patterns from California and Texas to Arizona and found it had increased migrants deaths by 20-fold.

The failures of NAFTA to bring prosperity to Mexico are well documented. It's moved 19 million more Mexicans into poverty, forced more than a million small farmers off the land due to the lifting of restrictions on cheaper US subsidized agricultural products, lowered real wages, and in the end forced "millions …to abandon their native homelands. Entire indigenous nations -- the Zapotecs, the Mixtecs, the Tzotzil Maya -- have moved by the tens of thousands, creating the largest migration of Native American peoples in North America since the Trail of Tears in the late 19th century."

While trade policies have brought suffering to the poor of Mexico, border policies have brought death.

Migrant Deaths Increase

Since 1994, between 2000 and 3000 migrants have died trying to cross the inhospitable regions left unsecured after numerous security measures like "Operation Hold the Line", "Operation Safeguard", and "Operation Gatekeeper" were put in place - 1000 of those in Arizona.

A study just released by the Binational Migration Institute (BMI) of the University of Arizona’s Mexican American Studies and Research Center looks at the effects of the "funneling effect" by compiling data on those who perished trying to cross the Arizona desert in the Tucson Sector.

A national border enforcement strategy that funneled illegal immigrants through Southern Arizona from Texas and California led to a dramatic increase in illegal-entrant deaths in Southern Arizona, according to a University of Arizona study released Wednesday.

The study by the Binational Migration Institute — paid for by in part by the Pima County Board of Supervisors — is not the first to reach that conclusion. Last year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that Arizona accounted for at least 78 percent of the increased Southwestern border deaths between 1990 and 2003.

But the UA study is the most detailed examination of known border deaths in Southern Arizona to date, said Melissa McCormick, a senior research specialist with the institute, which studies issues related to human rights and immigration as part of the university's Mexican American Studies and Research Center.

Among the unusual aspects of this latest study is that it is based on a detailed examination of more than 900 autopsy reports from the Pima County Medical Examiner's Office from 1990 to 2005. Previous studies had based their research on vital statistics from death certificates, which don't account for all illegal-entrant deaths since unidentified deaths are assumed to be U.S. citizens, McCormick said.

Arizona Star

(BMI) has undertaken a unique and scientifically rigorous study of all unauthorized border-crosser (UBC) deaths examined by the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office (PCMEO) from 1990-2005

…snip…

Because the PCMEO has handled approximately 90 percent of all UBC recovered bodies in the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, an analysis of such deaths serves as an accurate reflection of the major characteristics of all known unauthorized border-crosser deaths that have occurred in this sector since 1990.

…snip…

The BMI study was designed specifically to measure this “funnel effect” created by U.S. immigration-control policies. The BMI study found that there has been an exponential increase in the number of UBC recovered bodies handled by the PCMEO from 1990 to 2005.

BMI’s findings unambiguously confirm previous evidence that U.S. border-enforcement policies did create the funnel effect and that it is indeed the primary structural cause of death for thousands of unauthorized men, women, and children from Mexico, Central America, and South America who have tried to enter the United States. During the “pre-funnel effect” years (1990-1999), the PCMEO handled, on average, approximately 14 UBC recovered bodies per year. In stark contrast, during the funnel effect years (2000-2005), on average, 160 UBC recovered bodies were sent to the PCMEO each year. Over 80 percent of the unauthorized border-crosser bodies handled by the PCMEO have been under the age of 40, and there is a discernable, upward trend in the number of dead youth under the age of 18. There also has been a statistically significant decrease in the number of recovered bodies of unauthorized border-crossers from northern Mexico and a significant increase in the number of such decedents from central and southern Mexico.

American Immigration Law Institute

Yet, despite the obvious failures of these two policies, policymakers insist on using them as a model for future programs. NAFTA has been replicated in the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) passed by Congress in 2005 and similar trade agreements with Panama, Columbia and Peru, based on the NAFTA model are now pending in Congress.

As for relying on increased border security measures as a deterrent to unauthorized migration – it's become the cornerstone of Republican immigration reform policy.


The Human Cost

Lost in all the discussion of "unauthorized border crossers" and the death in the desert are the stories of those who never completed their journeys only to become statistics in any of the myriad of studies and reports on the topic.

For instance there is the story of Antonio Torres Jimenez, a long-time Tucson resident, whose body was found in the desert in May of 2006:

Antonio Torres Jimenez perished while coming back into Tucson from Mexico. After the Border Patrol ended their search, Torres’ friends continued to look for him (24 people fanned out across the desert to find their friend). They found him in less than 24 hours

The reason Torres went back and forth across the border illegally?

“A couple of years after Torres earned permanent residency, his eldest daughter died in Mexico…. Torres returned to La Loma [Mexico] to be with his wife and remaining children. When he came back to his construction job in Tucson, he learned that he’d violated the terms of his green card because he stayed in Mexico too long. He lost his legal status…. With few jobs back home, Torres continued living and working in Tucson. Torres’ wife and children stayed behind and he would travel to see them” (LoMonaco 6/3/06).

Binational Migration Institute

Or the story of Lucrecia Dominguez Luna:

Fifteen-year-old Jesus Abran Buenrostro Dominguez memorized the silhouette of Baboquivari Peak as his mother lay dying on the desert floor.

If he could remember where they were, maybe he could get help. His mother, 35-year-old Lecrecia Luna Dominguez, died before he had the chance.

Now all he wants is the chance to find her body and bring her home.

Home is the small village of San Martin Sombrerete in Zacatecas. Jesus' father works in Texas, and it was hoped the family could reunite. They crossed with Jesus' 7-year-old sister Nora. When Luna Dominguez fell ill on the third day of the journey, the group of village friends they were traveling with continued on with Nora. Jesus stayed behind to be with his mother.

"She kept begging me to go on without her, but I couldn't leave her," Jesus said.

Tucson Citizen

When she lost consciousness, Jesus struck out alone to try to find emergency help. Three days later, Border Patrol agents found him lost, wandering and disoriented in the desert. Although Jesus was dehydrated, in shock, suffering from heat exhaustion and terrified about his mother's status, the agents gave him a little water and then left him at the federal line in Nogales, a practice known as "expedited removal." Once there, Jesus placed a frantic call to his grandfather for help.

ePluribus Media

Cesario Dominguez, Lucrecia’s father, spent weeks searching the Altar Valley for her remains. The humanitarian-aid group No More Deaths assisted him; Border Patrol officials helped for only one day. Miraculously, Cesario eventually came upon his daughter’s skeletal remains, recognizing her three rings. “What was left was that hand with those rings, there in the sand,” said her father.

Binational Migration Institute

These stories and thousands more just like them are the reality behind the statistics. Lucrecia Dominguez Luna is but one of the women whose death accounts for the two-thirds increase in female migrant deaths in recent years. She is one of the 61% of all migrants who die of exposure; up from 39% from the period before the funnel policies went into effect. … But she was also someone's wife, daughter, and mother. How did Lucrecia's last moments pass?

Luis Urrea in his book Devil’s Highway describes what death from “exposure” really entails:

Your heart pumps harder and harder to get fluid and oxygen to your organs. Empty vessels within you collapse. Your sweat runs out....Your temperature redlines ---you hit 105, 106, 108 degrees. Your body panics and dilated all blood capillaries near the surface, hoping to flood your skin with blood to cool it off. You blush. Your eyes turn red: blood vessels burst, and later, the tissue of the whites literally cooks until it goes pink, then a well-done crimson. Your skin gets terribly sensitive. It hurts, it burns. Your nerves flame. Your blood heats under your skin. Clothing feels like sandpaper. Some walkers at this point strip nude. Originally, BORSTAR rescuers thought this stripping was a delirious panic, an attempt to cool off at the last minute. But often, the clothing was eerily neat, carefully folded and left in nice little piles beside the corpses. They realized the walkers couldn't stand their nerve endings being chafed by their clothes.

Once they're naked, they're surely hallucinating. They dig burrows in the soil, apparently thinking they'll escape the sun. Once underground, of course, they bake like a pig at a luau. Some dive into sand, thinking it's water, and they swim in it until they pass out. They choke to death, their throats filled with rocks and dirt. Cutters can only assume they think they're drinking water. Your muscles, lacking water, feed on themselves. They break down and start to rot. Once rotting in you, they dump rafts of dying cells into your already sludgy bloodstream. Proteins are peeling off your dying muscles. Chunks of cooked meat are falling out of your organs, to clog your other organs. They system closes down in a series. Your kidneys, your bladder, your heart. They jam shut. Stop. Your brains sparks. Out. You're gone. [3]

ePuribus Media

As policymakers in Washington mull over the newest proposals for increasing foreign markets for US products, discuss the merits of the global economy and the free movement of capital, or the need to build more walls and barriers along the southern border to prevent the flow of the economic migrants caused by these policies ….do they think of Antonio Torres Jimenez or Lucrecia Dominguez Luna dying terrible deaths in the desert? Do they think of the thousands of others who have come before them or the thousands more to come in the future?

We will never know the stories behind each an every one of the 3000 migrant deaths that have occurred along the border. No one will tell us about their individual decisions to make the arduous journey, or the grief of family and friends when they didn't survive. In fact, for many migrants, the details of their deaths will always remain nameless, faceless statistics.

But thanks to the work done by the University of Arizona we can at least attach names to roughly one thousand of those who never completed the journey to el Norte.

Perhaps they should be read aloud in the halls of Congress each time a new trade or immigration policy is debated ….maybe then policymakers might think about the human cost of their actions.

**WARNING WHAT FOLLOWS CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES OF MIGRANT DEATHS…NOT SUITABLE FOR ALL READERS**

Deceased Unauthorized Border Crossers
Processed & Identified by the Pima County Medical Examiner's Office, 1990-2005

(A “Doe” designation following a name means that the decedent was initially unidentified)

1990
Date Found Name Age
5/1/1990 Martinez, Carlos 52
5/7/1990 Carrillo, Miguel Angel/ Doe #20 29
6/71990 Guerrero-Chavez, Juan/ Doe #31 30
7/7/1990 Cardena, Luis Gonzalez 40
7/21/1990 Ortiz, Ruben Corona UNKNOWN
10/18/1990 Coronel-Zazueta, Jose 26

1991
Date Found Name Age
7/15/1991 Hernandez-Morales/ Doe #43 52
8/16/1991 Martinez, Juan C. UNKNOWN

1992
Date Found Name Age
7/2/1992 De Leon, Faustino N. Gomez 17
11/14/1992 Zavala, Raul Reyes 29

1993
Date Found Name Age
1/12/1993 Lopez-Ibarra, Juan Andres 33
6/18/1993 Ayala-Ventura, Juana Elena 25
8/2/1993 Hernandez, Odilon Lopez/ Doe #34 22
8/5/1993 Perez, Adan Rublero 31
10/14/1993 Cardoza-Lopez, Jesus Antonio UNKNOWN
11/19/1993 Rodriguez-Ramirez, Jesus Eberto 18
11/26/1993 Salcido, Gilberto Urquijo 19
12/2/1993 Rodriguez, Antonio Infante 23

1994
Date Found Name Age
7/26/1994 Martinez-Garcia, Alfonso 44

1995
Date Found Name Age
1/17/1995 Alvarez-Guadarrama, Rodolfo 48
3/9/1995 Lugo-Castro, Luis Enrique 24
5/20/1995 Martinez-Ibarra, Alejandro 27
11/4/1995 Alvarez-Salcedo, Rafaeal 38
12/21/1995 Cortez, Carmen Aguilar 45

1996
Date Found Name Age
2/9/1996 Padilla-Ortiz, Jose Humberto 59
6/15/1996 Olivas-Cebreros,Gonzalo 34
6/15/1996 Olivas-Cebreros, Arcenio 29
6/15/1996 Soto-Munoz, Antonio 20
6/16/1996 Guicho-Almeida, Sergio 31
6/16/1996 Mazoraqui-Lopez, Jose 32
6/21/1996 RAMIREZ-TAPIA, DAVID 27
6/25/1996 Cardenas-Salazar, Jesus 35
7/3/1996 Montero-Torres, Enrique 19
10/18/1996 Acosta-Franco, Jorge Arturo 27

1997
Date Found Name Age
3/4/1997 Celso Mendoza Rodriguez 32
3/19/1997 Melvin Osorio 21
3/20/1997 Isaias Marcilino Ordones-Vasquez 24
3/24/1997 Juan Jose UNKNOWN
3/27/1997 Pedro Sandoval Estrada 32
7/1/1997 Roberto Urbano Torres 54
7/11/1997 Jose Nava UNKNOWN
8/17/1997 Paola N Salazar 12
8/17/1997 Antonia C Garcia 35
8/17/1997 Nadia Ahumada 12
8/17/1997 Everardo G Ahumada 10
8/17/1997 Marcela G. Mendez 23
9/21/1997 Jose Luis Cano-Velasquez 36
9/21/1997 Juan Robles-Palencia 25
9/21/1997 Teresa Arreola Raya 28
12/14/1997 Oscar Pena Moreno 32

1998
Date Found Name Age
5/3/1998 Joel Orlando Ibarra Lugo 21
6/28/1998 Rosa Cardenas 23
7/13/1998 Juvenal Silva-Ramirez UNKNOWN
7/14/1998 Rene Hernandez 18
7/25/1998 Sonja Soto-Escalante 17
7/28/1998 Ana Claudia Villa Herrera 17
7/29/1998 Miguel Angel Vasquez Godinez 23
8/20/1998 Elidia Martinez-Macario 27
8/23/1998 Rolando Morales Solano 28
9/2/1998 Arturo Acosta Soto 27
9/9/1998 Antonio Renteria Martinez 26
9/20/1998 Jose Martin Molina Panuco 23

1999
Date Found Name Age
2/14/1999 Telesforo 42
4/4/1999 Hector Lopez Carrizoza 30
4/5/1999 Cesar Ramos Fernandez 44
5/15/1999 Martin Ortega-Campos 33
6/15/1999 Ramon J Gonzalez Salazar 51
6/17/1999 Cuahtemoc Lavin Valentin 45
6/17/1999 Hector Lavin Martinez 25
6/24/1999 Jose Guadalupe Llaninto-Villalobobs 35
7/4/1999 Aaron Moises Delgado Lopez 18
7/7/1999 Alejandro Felix Barraza 19
7/21/1999 Roberto Ramirez-Ramirez 47
7/24/1999 Manuel Artalejo 19
8/1/1999 Carmen Margarita Martinez 19
9/19/1999 Veronica Nadia Lopez Munoz 21
10/26/1999 Olivio Claudio Velazquez-Perez 53
11/11/1999 Modesto Santos-Flores 20
11/23/1999 David Maldonado Quijada 29




2000
Date Found Name Age
1/22/2000 Tomas Mateo Nicolas 17
2/5/2000 Maria Del Rocio Candia-Bravo UNKNOWN
2/5/2000 Natali Enriquez-Hipolito UNKNOWN
2/5/2000 Luis Roberto Morales Avenado UNKNOWN
2/5/2000 Emma Montecarlo Castillo 40
2/14/2000 Isidro Digno Gamez 40
2/29/2000 Delia Moreno Perez 24
3/6/2000 Vicente Gonzalez-Ramirez 46
3/6/2000 Alfredo Uvieta Dominguez 34
3/7/2000 Jose Ines Diaz Gonzalez 18
3/20/2000 Gerardo Nevarez Gallegos 26
3/23/2000 Jose Luis Rojas Inigo 30
3/30/2000 Carlos Miguel Gonzalez Corona 17
4/5/2000 Angel Selvas Ruiz 34
4/14/2000 Zenon Resendiz Nieto 27
4/16/2000 Herlindo Martinez-De Jesus 28
4/27/2000 Eusebio Garcia-Perez 33
5/9/2000 Marina Montano Mercado 26
5/18/2000 Jose Angel Adrian Mendoza Mendoza 40
5/21/2000 Hector Guadalupe Sanchez-Murrieta 22
5/23/2000 Fermin Aguilar Rabadan 34
5/29/2000 Yolanda Gonzalez Galindo 19
5/30/2000 Maria Cruz-Ruiz 45
5/30/2000 Maura Zacarias Sanchez 31
5/31/2000 Juana Medina Butanda 41
5/31/2000 Juan Manuel Acosta Rojas 28
6/1/2000 Enrique Soto Pacheco 19
6/3/2000 Oscar Cervantes-Melquiadez 19
6/3/2000 Froylan Flores-Hernandez 32
6/3/2000 Hugo Sanchez Acevedo 18
6/5/2000 Jose Guadalupe Rico-Sanchez 35
6/5/2000 Guillermina Herrera Guzman 26
6/6/2000 Mainor Gerardo 23
6/7/2000 Enedina Torralba-Martinez 26
6/14/2000 Mario Calderon Jimenez 10
6/14/2000 Eutiquio Dorentes Marin 45
6/15/2000 Laura Vargas Ortiz 22
6/19/2000 Pedro Basulto Neri 20
6/26/2000 Jose Manuel Leos 36
6/28/2000 Antonia Mendez Mendez 16
7/7/2000 Modesta Perez-Pacheco 45
7/24/2000 Victor Manuel Blas-Vargas 29
7/24/2000 Mauro Garcia Martinez 31
7/27/2000 Raul Lopez-Sachez 25
8/9/2000 Demetrio Velez Garcia 25
8/15/2000 Amador Cazares-Sanchez 22
8/23/2000 Miguel Angel Chiguil-Arres. 14
8/29/2000 Rigoberto Alvarado Garcia 24
8/29/2000 Omar Alfredo Cerna-Giraldo 20
8/29/2000 Herlinda Infantes-Mejia 28
9/3/2000 Paula Isela Romero-Palacios 23
9/5/2000 Isaura Bibiana Medina Paredes 25
9/12/2000 Fortino Herrera-Gervasio 24
9/12/2000 Juventino Merida-Fuentes 52
9/21/2000 Norma Leticia Herrera-Navarro 21
9/29/2000 Olivia Vallarta-Coronado 32
10/28/2000 Angel Ledesma-Raya 43
10/31/2000 Jose Luis Lopez-Martinez UNKNOWN
11/12/2000 Juan Pinacho-Rodriguez 26

2001
Date Found Name Age
5/9/2001 Fernando Cruz-Mendoza-Cruz 31
5/17/2001 Alicia Adela Sotelo-Mendoza 46
5/23/2001 Felipe Sanchez-Najera 53
5/24/2001 Lorenzo Hernandez-Ortiz 34
5/24/2001 Raymundo Barreda-Landa 15
5/24/2001 Reyno Bartolo-Fernandez 37
5/24/2001 Mario Castillo-Fernandez 25
5/24/2001 Enrique Landeros-Garcia 30
5/24/2001 Raymundo Barreda-Maruri 54
5/24/2001 Julian Ambros-Malaga 24
5/24/2001 Alejandro Marin-Claudio 28
5/24/2001 Arnulfo Flores-Badillo 42
5/24/2001 Edgar Adrian Martinez-Colorado 23
5/24/2001 Sergio Ruiz-Marin 23
5/24/2001 Efrain Gonzalez-Manzano 24
5/24/2001 Heriberto Badillo-Tapia 18
6/1/2001 Daniel Beltran-Rojas 24
6/1/2001 Armando Rosales-Pacheco 25
6/3/2001 Buenaventura Ayala-Zamora 45
6/8/2001 Roberto Bautista Lopez 19
6/11/2001 Anastacio Lopez-Guerrero 38
6/16/2001 Martin Espinoza-Cruz 40
6/18/2001 Adela Salas-Perez 30
6/19/2001 Guadalupe Octaviano-Nieto 21
6/20/2001 Enrique Mendoza-Castillo 42
6/22/2001 Rosario Sanchez-Rogel 45
6/25/2001 Lauro Barrio-Dominguez 23
6/26/2001 Jose Romero-Luna 43
6/30/2001 Maria Dolores Espinoza-Morales 31
7/2/2001 Alvaro Segovia-Garcia 22
7/2/2001 Julio Cesar Garcia-Soto 23
7/2/2001 Francisco Carreles-Camacho 26
7/2/2001 Alejandro Gutierrez-Hernandez 46
7/7/2001 Alberto Maldonado-Viveros 30
7/11/2001 Esteban Duran-Aburto 31
7/12/2001 Carlos Armando Bustamonte-Garcian 22
7/13/2001 Jorge Alonso Mirelles 24
7/14/2001 Juana Martinez-Miranda 26
7/15/2001 Andrea Alcantar-Cruz 24
7/20/2001 Abel Gonzalez-Dominguez 34
7/24/2001 Hermila Romero-Carreon 29
7/30/2001 Lugarda Iracema Martinez-Jiminez 19
8/1/2001 Petra Veronica Tenorio-Soto 30
8/7/2001 Santiago Pacheco-Ramirez 43
8/22/2001 Dalvin Eugenio Urbina-Kirk 21
8/29/2001 Didier Villanueva-Garcia 27
9/2/2001 Catalina Ventura-Mendoza 43
9/2/2001 Irene Gutierrez-Hernandez 35
9/4/2001 Lizbeth Juarez Riofrio 23
9/11/2001 Mateo Gaspar-Vargas 43
9/21/2001 Lydia Dimas-Tellez 27
9/25/2001 Graciela Alvarado-Hernandez 28
11/5/2001 Heriberto Nunez-Robles 25
11/25/2001 Casimaro Torres 38
11/28/2001 Ernesto A Gutierrez-Ramirez 16
11/28/2001 Jose Garcia 24

2002
Date Found Name Age
1/6/2002 Cesar Leobardo Arguellas-Herrera 30
1/8/2002 Maria Luisa Leticia Lozano-De La Rosa 32
1/27/2002 Tomas Molina-Perez 35
2/18/2002 Martin Martinez-Grijalva 38
2/19/2002 Carlos Garcia-Aguirre 25
2/20/2002 Castulo Salazar-Ontiveros 54
2/24/2002 Domitila Mondragon Alvarado 38
3/11/2002 Miguel Fructuoso-Hernandez 44
3/15/2002 Miguel Ochoa-Gonzalez 39
3/22/2002 Arturo Heras-Espinoza 34
4/7/2002 Jesus Rojas-Villas 35
4/12/2002 Alfonso Hernandez-Hernandez 23
4/12/2002 Victor Diaz-Acevedo 29
4/12/2002 Claudio Martinez-Cortez 34
4/18/2002 Martin Moreno-Montero 45
5/7/2002 Juana Gonzalez 26
5/7/2002 Alonso Caloca-Vargas 27
5/19/2002 Jose Lara-Avila 19
5/22/2002 Simeon Diaz De La Cruz 41
5/28/2002 Rene Resendiz-Rodriguez 26
5/30/2002 Salvador De La Paz Macedo 21
5/31/2002 Francisco Javier Trujillo-Ruiz 18
5/31/2002 Rene Rodriguez-Ramirez 22
6/6/2002 Raul De Anda-Lopez 54
6/6/2002 Norma Rodriguez-Amaro 22
6/7/2002 Margarita Rio-Rodriguez 30
6/7/2002 Jaime Rodriguez Gutierrez 25
6/7/2002 Sofia Rubio-Chavez 19
6/7/2002 Antonio Vargas-Torres 24
6/8/2002 Santiago Arcos-Mota 28
6/8/2002 Jose Manuel Raygoza Gil 14
6/8/2002 Maria Guillermina Sanchez-Salto 30
6/8/2002 Alex Sosa-Coba 24
6/8/2002 Paula Hernandez-Tapia 31
6/8/2002 Rogelio Cruz-Cervantes 52
6/9/2002 Arturo Luciano Gomez-Castro 27
6/9/2002 Ricardo Pantaleon-Santiago 18
6/9/2002 Victor Galindo Torres 21
6/10/2002 Luis Fernando Us Tun 18
6/13/2002 Margarito Escoricia-Franco 26
6/14/2002 Arturo Ruiz-Gutierrez 23
6/14/2002 Maria Elena Lopez-Gomez 17
6/16/2002 Adilene Lopez-Moreno 11
6/17/2002 Rafaeal Lopez-Mendez 19
6/18/2002 Santos Fabian Gonzalez-Paredes 21
6/19/2002 Eva Hernandez-Escarcega 31
6/19/2002 Angeles Contreras-Gonzalez 22
6/23/2002 Carlos Valdez-Gortari 46
6/22/2002 Jose Luis Hernandez-Aguirre 25
6/23/2002 Jose Mendez-Gomez 26
6/23/2002 Saul Segura Oliveros 21
6/24/2002 Domingo Lopez-Lopez 20
6/26/2002 Gonzalo Gonzalez-Saldana 34
6/28/2002 Blanca Estela Garcia-Reyes 36
6/29/2002 Ramiro Garcia-Abarca 18
6/29/2002 Mauro Santos-Tolentino 55
7/3/2002 Jose Salazar-Velarde 46
7/3/2002 Blanca Reyna Salinas-Espinoza 23
7/5/2002 Ruben Gonzalez-Miranda 49
7/5/2002 Jesus Torres Santiago 20
7/5/2002 Alejandro Hernandez-Badillo 16
7/9/2002 Cristina Dominguez-Librado 35
7/9/2002 Maximo Barrera-Esquivel 35
7/11/2002 Leonel Tuxpan-Grano 33
7/12/2002 Francisco Javier Roman Olivan 18
7/12/2002 Raul Estrada-Frias 26
7/13/2002 Joel Aguila Hernandez 28
7/14/2002 Ismael Tepox-Gamboa 35
7/14/2002 Eledi Sanchez-Cirilo 41
7/18/2002 Maria Dolores Moreno-Trejo 10
7/18/2002 Dolores Trejo-Ramirez 53
7/21/2002 Alberico Cordova-Robledo 43
7/21/2002 Oscar Irineo-Santillan 18
7/21/2002 Maria De Jesus Ruiz Garcia 31
7/22/2002 Jesus Balandran-Hernandez 43
7/27/2002 Damaso Rosales-Zamudio 27
8/4/2002 Juan Manuel Dominguez Quintero 33
8/8/2002 Jorge Antonio Yin-Cervantes 28
8/8/2002 Jaime Artega-Alba 22
8/8/2002 Adalberto Lopez-Zuniga 37
8/9/2002 Panfilo Murillo Aguilar 28
8/10/2002 Mirabel Munoz-Bustos 22
8/10/2002 Claudia Patricia Oqunendo-Bedoya 40
8/10/2002 Elizabeth Hahuatzi Martinez 36
8/11/2002 Roberto Rodriguez-Rodriguez 14
8/11/2002 Francisco Tovar-Frausto 41
8/11/2002 Mari Carmen Serapio-Xaltenco 19
8/14/2002 Alejandrina De La Soledad Felix Sanchez 23
8/15/2002 Leandro Bautista Alba 58
8/15/2002 Enriqueta Martinez-Velasquez 46
8/16/2002 Jose Alonso Pulido 43
8/17/2002 Juana Santa Cruz Garcia 34
8/17/2002 Conrado Negrete-Venegas 39
8/26/2002 Eugenio Reyes-Gonzalez, Doe 94 48
8/27/2002 Alfredo Escobar-Lopez 37
8/28/2002 Alma Del Cruz-Lopez 25
8/31/2002 Jesus Humberto Ballesteros-Ortiz, Doe 98 17
8/31/2002 Pablo Hernandez-Espinoza 27
8/31/2002 Hipolito Hernandez Santiago 38
9/1/2002 Luis Bernardo Rodriguez-Tuyub 15
9/3/2002 Gilberto Menendez Gutierrez 33
9/4/2002 Alfaro Marquez-Campos 22
9/4/2002 Cecilio Cabrera-Pedro 37
9/5/2002 Maria De La Cruz Magana-Hernandez 20
9/5/2002 Maria Elena Morales-Sierra 45
9/5/2002 Jose Carlos Wicab-Chable 15
9/5/2002 Omar Sanchez Guevara 26
9/6/2002 Raquel Diaz Sarabia 34
9/9/2002 Jose Luis Rodriguez-Coronel 42
9/9/2002 Victor Manuel Talavera Figueroa 27
9/14/2002 Victor Hugo Davila-Ehuan 24
9/14/2002 Juan Rodriguez Sanchez 24
9/16/2002 Franklin Silva 30
9/16/2002 Jose Luis Vergara Flores 38
9/20/2002 Abel Martinez Faustino 17
10/11/2002 Carlos Garcia Bravo 18
10/16/2002 Jose Guadalupe Juarez Lopez 40
10/25/2002 Armando Saldivar-Flores 39
12/4/2002 Alejandro Lopez Lopez 48
12/25/2002 Rosa Mercedes Cano Dominguez 31

2003
Date Found Name Age
1/4/2003 Oscar Borbon Mendoza 34
1/25/2003 Jose Antonio Perez Rubio 16
2/11/2003 Felipe Antonio Villafana-Rosario 33
2/11/2003 Ricardo Ibarra Tellez 43
2/11/2003 Elia Perez-Ramiez 38
2/11/2003 Reyna Mercedes Peguero Sanchez 30
2/11/2003 Amalia Ortiz-Licona 22
2/14/2003 Cesario Ruiz-Cortez 54
2/15/2003 Gonzalo Gomez-Gomez 42
4/3/2003 Celso Villa Mexico 18
4/13/2003 Antonio Mora Martinez 38
4/26/2003 Pedro Bautista Stillborn
4/22/2003 Juan Jeronimo Altamirano 33
4/25/2003 Mariano Duran-Saucedo 40
5/1/2003 Gabriel Torres-Alcala 47
5/3/2003 Octavio Lopez Felix 24
5/17/2003 Jose Lopez Cardenas 35
5/21/2003 Jose Andres Aguayo Contreras 30
5/22/2003 Jose Luis Rodriguez Tavarez 38
5/23/2003 Jose Refugio Del Angel Ferral 42
5/23/2003 Francisco Chavez-Mojica 40
5/24/2003 Fidel Velasquez Perez 17
5/24/2003 Josefina Martinez Sanchez 40
5/25/2003 Jose Avila 64
5/27/2003 Martin Gallegos Perez 28
5/27/2003 Guillermo Federico Sanchez-Lomeli 27
5/29/2003 Luis Miguel Villa Castillo 20
5/29/2003 Jose Ignacio Sanchez Chaparro 43
5/29/2003 Avelino Andres Cabrera Gonzales 43
5/29/2003 Teresa Velasquez 16
5/29/2003 Jose Alberto Lozano Martinez 31
5/29/2003 Genaro Rosales-Martinez 26
6/1/2003 Matias Juan Garcia Zavaleta 29
6/2/2003 Roberto Torres Ramirez 28
6/3/2003 Rene Olvera-Medina 60
6/8/2003 Mario Gonzalez-Hernandez 45
6/12/2003 Elizabeth Sanchez Acosta 25
6/14/2003 Maria Cristina Hernandez Perez 2
6/14/2003 Clemen Aguilar-Izaguirre 24
6/16/2003 Jorge Aburto-Zamorano 38
6/17/2003 Sergio Mejia Perez 26
6/18/2003 Natividad Carlota De Leon Maldonado 37
6/29/2003 Eliseo Vargas Luna 29
7/1/2003 Keila Madai Velazquez-Gonzalez 15
7/1/2003 Adrian Diaz Dionicio 35
7/2/2003 Isabel Lucrecia Paxtor Morales 22
7/3/2003 Nivercino Rodrigues Da Silva 39
7/3/2003 Antonio Alvarez Solorzano 50
7/4/2003 Pedro Xochicale Tlapalcoyoa 21
7/7/2003 Hermina Fuentes-Sanchez 29
7/8/2003 Maria Florinda Xum Chan 30
7/9/2003 Nora Huertas-Hernandez 19
7/10/2003 Antonio Sanchez Montoya 32
7/12/2003 Antonio Rolon Hernandez 27
7/13/2003 Ermeria Jeanette Martinez Matias 31
7/13/2003 Maria Guadalupe Cayetano Cornelio 19
7/14/2003 Carlos Rojas Morales 24
7/14/2003 Maria De Los Angeles Contreras-Rojas 18
7/15/2003 Maria Guadalupe Vasquez Saavedra 21
7/15/2003 Fortino Vasquez Garcia 41
7/17/2003 Sergio Benitez Hernandez 38
7/16/2003 Esteban Salvador Sanchez Rojas (Doe #73) 29
7/16/2003 Enrique Antonio Lopez Alcantar 18
7/19/2003 Esequiel Vargas Mora 33
7/20/2003 Mauricio Salas Guerra 38
7/21/2003 Agustin Hernandez-Jimenez 23
7/21/2003 Ofelia Maria Garcia Chavaloc 33
7/21/2003 Maria Josefa Tax Hernandez 37
7/21/2003 Amado De Jesus De Jesus 28
7/22/2003 Martin De Jesus Bernabe 19
7/25/2003 Miguel Rodriguez-Marentes 56
8/7/2003 Flora Maria Reyes-Cruz 16
8/9/2003 Alfredo Gundino-Ruiz 22
8/9/2003 Cruz Fabela Munoz 44
8/10/2003 Juan Reyes Luna (Doe #94) 42
8/10/2003 Jose Fernando Martinez-Fuentes 31
8/13/2003 Wilmer Germain Quintanilla 26
8/12/2003 Manuel De Jesus Sanchez 25
8/14/2003 Ilda Roblero Roblero 23
8/15/2003 Juan Antonio Nila Valdivia 20
8/17/2003 Jose Manuel Gomez Cruz 16
8/17/2003 Nicolas De Jesus Garcia Ventura (Doe #103) 55
8/18/2003 Jaime Monroy Gamino (Doe #104) 28
8/18/2003 Victor Manuel Placencia Basilio 27
8/20/2003 Lorenzo Lopez Diaz 21
8/26/2003 Lucio Hernandez-Hernandez 25
8/27/2003 Carlos Ramon Bejarno Cruz 24
8/27/2003 Efrain Castro Ramirez (Doe#109) 50
8/30/2003 Antonio Garcia Gomez 28
8/30/2003 Ruben Garcia Gamino 21
8/30/2003 Miguel Cruz-Laurel (Doe#113) 57
9/1/2003 Miguel Diaz-Garcia 25
9/2/2003 Miguel Ernesto Guardado Flores 19
9/2/2003 Raymundo De Jesus Rodriguez Tobar 33
9/2/2003 Transito Guzman Escobar 35
9/8/2003 Ana Cruz-Garcia 31
9/9/2003 Willian Oswaldo Valle Alfaro (Doe 121) 20
9/13/2003 Juan Carlos Rico Orihuela 19
9/15/2003 Rolando Arce Valenzuela 24
9/18/2003 Nahum Martinez Solano 24
9/20/2003 Rafael Martinez Ruiz 34
9/22/2003 Jorge Rolando Cano Yeh 27
9/23/2003 Rosa Maria Arriaga Castillo 22
10/18/2003 Edgar Miguel Pucek 23
10/21/2003 Hilda Hernandez Baltazar (Doe #35) 38
10/24/2003 Faustino Berneo Rayon 31
10/25/2003 Daniel Haro (Doe 138) 21
11/4/2003 Nicholas Padilla Reyes 20
11/4/2003 Agustin Rita-Santos 40
11/4/2003 Isidro Gutierrez Reyes (Doe #144) 36
11/4/2003 Jose Manuel Alcon Villa (Doe #145) 26
11/24/2003 Valentin Estrada Bejarano (Doe#150) 38
11/30/2003 Andres Campana-Gonzalez (Doe#152) 30
12/1/2003 Altagracia Marbella Tapia-Guillen 21



2004
Date Found Name Age
1/16/2004 Jose Marco Antonio Zavala 27
2/10/2004 Adrian Garnica Altamirano 20
2/10/2004 Eleuterio Guzman Hernandez 43
2/17/2004 Sotero Gomez Viveros 25
2/21/2004 Maria Lucia Martinez-Nava 26
3/2/2004 Carlos Castro Llescas 36
3/2/2004 Rolando Perez Vazquez 37
3/17/2004 Juan Loenel Lizarraga-Vizcarra 27
3/19/2004 Leopoldo Vazquez Hernandez 19
3/20/2004 Jaime Gonzalez Pablo 17
3/21/2004 Gabriel Ortega Flores 27
3/20/2004 Antonio Tirado Rodriguez 43
3/24/2004 Diana Raquel Garcia Velasco 19
3/24/2004 Dagoberto Solis De Coss 36
3/24/2004 Margarito Aguillares Hernandez 26
3/25/2004 Maria Del Carmen Sabino Garcia (Doe #12) 30
3/25/2004 Raul Ramos Chavez 19
4/3/2004 Jesus Esquivel Santiago 26
4/3/2004 Rosario Munoz Berrelleza 36
4/3/2004 Reynael Cortinez Roblero 24
4/4/2004 Fortino Soto Armenta 28
4/4/2004 Rodrigo Miranda Rivera 35
4/9/2004 Norma Moreno Hernandez 30
4/12/2004 Francisco Javier Acosta Sandoval 37
4/20/2004 Tomas Soto Granados 43
4/20/2004 Reyes Campos Zalazar 42
4/20/2004 Carlos Molina Torres 33
4/28/2004 Fidelina Bravo De Marzan 42
5/1/2004 Mario Alberto Rodriguez Perez 25
5/3/2004 Jose Ruiz Bravo 40
5/4/2004 Alvaro Ramos De Castilla 21
5/9/2004 Maria Fabiola Paloma-Rios (Doe 15) 18
5/14/2004 Francisca Alicia Flores Guifarro 42
5/15/2004 Jose Juan Pacheco Salazar 25
5/19/2004 Carlos Caballero Gonzalez (Doe #61) 27
5/22/2004 Santos Martin Perez-Perez (Doe #59) 26
5/22/2004 Carmen Avila Vargas (Doe #17) 22
5/30/2004 Armando Mendoza 27
5/30/2004 Pascual Perez Funez (Doe #62) 38
6/2/2004 Jose Lorenzo Quintanilla 24
6/2/2004 Arnelio Serrano Portillo 39
6/2/2004 Jose Maria Aquino (Doe #65) 21
6/5/2004 Maria Cristina Salinas Gonzalez (Doe #19) 19
6/7/2004 Sofia Beltran Galicia (Doe 20) 21
6/8/2004 Carlos Alberto Argueta Lezma (Doe #71) 42
6/10/2004 Mario Soto Trejo (Doe #72) 30
6/10/2004 Emilio Leon Dominguez 24
6/11/2004 Marcelo Infante Pereyra (Doe #73) 28
6/12/2004 Jose Angel Miranda Escobar 22
6/13/2004 Julian Mayor Arbelaez (Doe #77) 20
6/13/2004 Olivo Martinez- De La Cruz 34
6/15/2004 Rosa Viviana Torres Corona (Doe #22) 26
6/16/2004 Emelia Perez Santiago 45
6/16/2004 Leopoldo Menedz Murrieta 20
6/17/2004 Leodan Vinicio Cabrera Sanchez (Doe #78) 20
6/17/2004 Manuel Luis Ramirez Herrera (Doe #67) 40
6/18/2004 Jaime Roberto Ortega Orellana (Doe #80) 26
6/18/2004 Angel Alberto Lizarraga Prado 26
6/18/2004 Isaac Melo Mejia (Doe #81) 26
6/18/2004 Adalberto Bello Encarnacion (Doe #82) 34
6/21/2004 Jovita Martinez Agudo (Doe #23) 42
6/24/2004 Raquel Hernandez-Cruz (Doe #24) 23
6/24/2004 Isaias Juan Galvez Perez (Doe #84) 28
6/29/2004 Jorge Armando Say-Pacay (Doe #86) 32
7/3/2004 Ismael Gomez Herrera (Doe #87) 22
7/3/2004 Maricruz Farias-Amador (Doe #25) 24
7/3/2004 Blanca Estela Ferreyra Vidal 34
7/7/2004 Paulina Morales-Exiquio (Doe #26) 20
7/7/2004 Nancy Navarrete Hernandez (Doe #27) 26
7/9/2004 Maria De La Luz Florez Martinez (Doe #28) 30
7/9/2004 Librado Tolentino-Velasco (Doe #89) 47
7/9/2004 Mario Alberto Diaz Ponce (Doe #88) 36
7/10/2004 Oscar Belerrabano Hidalgo 26
7/11/2004 Julio Cesar Romero-Espargo (Doe #90) 23
7/12/2004 Marcos De La Cruz Sandoval 18
7/12/2004 Luis Armando Cataldo-Escorza (Doe #92) 21
7/14/2004 Maria Raimunda Ribeiro Silva (Doe #30) 53
7/19/2004 Salvador Andres Gonzalez Leyva (Doe #96) 28
7/20/2004 Sergio Cabrera Hernandez 26
7/22/2004 Ofelia Vicente Ixmai (Doe #33) 28
7/23/2004 Omar Francisco Ortiz Camacho 18
7/26/2004 Jesus Hernandez-Lopez 23
7/26/2004 Aurelio Rios Venegas (Doe #100) 51
7/26/2004 Veronica Duenas Ramirez 33
7/29/2004 Pablo Gerardo Lazaro (Doe #102) 24
7/31/2004 Rosa Pena Ocampo (Doe #37) 38
8/3/2004 Francisco Javier Sanchez Aguilar 31
8/5/2004 Luis Cisneros Ventura (Doe #105) 63
8/7/2004 Albertano Herrera Liborio (Doe #106) 25
8/10/2004 Maria Carina Cortes Portillo 50
8/12/2004 Madilio Gutierrez-Perez 20
8/15/2004 Manuel Batalla Gonzalez (Doe #110) 35
8/20/2004 Gustavo Adolfo Gonzalez Cruz (Doe #112) 17
8/22/2004 Jesus Roman Garcia (Doe 114) 35
8/25/2004 Jose Cruz Adame Zavala (Doe #115) 38
8/29/2004 Aurora Cuamba Magallon 32
8/30/2004 Jose Alfredo Garcia Martinez 31
8/30/2004 Enrique Morales Flores 44
9/1/2004 Pedro Alejandro Valencia Pinedo (Doe #119) 24
9/2/2004 Telesforo Santos Arroyo 38
9/2/2004 Victor Manuel Coyoy Sum (Doe #120) 51
9/5/2004 Olaf Avila Gonzalez (Doe #123) 19
9/7/2004 Leonardo Plata-Escamilla 41
9/8/2004 Jose Trinidad Alcocer Martinez (Doe #124) 37
9/14/2004 Abel Salina Cortes 17
9/14/2004 Humberto Hernandez-Hernandez 35
9/14/2004 Jose Narciso Hernandez-Ledesma 13
9/14/2004 Usterlin Trancito Mazariesgos Vazquez/Doe 125 27
9/15/2004 Dante Roldan Flores (Doe #126) 18
9/25/2004 Casildo Almaraz-Hernandez (Doe #130) 41
9/28/2004 Alejandro Rangel Luna 27
9/28/2004 David Orozco Romo 20
9/28/2004 Miguel Dominguez Juarez 34
10/13/2004 Gregorio Martin Garcia-Cardenas 38
10/23/2004 Felipe Yanez Gonzalez (Doe #146) 15
10/29/2004 Octavio Ortiz Martinez (Doe #153) 44
11/2/2004 Leobardo Contreras Rodriguez (Doe #155) 33
11/12/2004 Emilio Solis Trinidad (Doe #156) 33
11/14/2004 Jose Salomon Guitierrez-Lopez (Doe #159) UNKNOWN
11/26/2004 Miguel Hernandez Hernandez 43
12/2/2004 Maria Varela Dominguez (Doe #48) 41
12/7/2004 Martin Diaz Lopez (Doe #165) 29
12/27/2004 Josefina Jimenez Jeronimo (Doe #51) 42
12/30/2004 Julio César Moreno 55

2005
Date Found Name Age
1/8/2005 Raziel Elhiu Bolanos Sanchez (Doe #4) 23
1/10/2005 Rosendo Martinez Ramirez 34
1/27/2005 Antonia Andrea Moran Aviles 34
1/31/2005 Raul Soto Vidales (Doe #10) 30
2/10/2005 Michelle Acosta Gonzalez 16
2/11/2005 Roberto Viguerillas-Valenzuela 49
2/14/2005 Maurilio Piceno Garcia (Doe #14) 28
2/19/2005 Julio Cesar Yanez Ramirez (Doe #16) 31
2/28/2005 Francisco Chavarria Zamora 47
2/28/2005 Vicente Montes-Medrano 25
3/1/2005 Leonardo Ruiz Bautista 22
3/20/2005 Angel Rafael Calixtro-Celaya 26
3/21/2005 Rolando Estrada Lamas 35
3/23/2005 Rigoberto Cifuentes Arredondo 33
3/27/2005 Abel Matias-Francisco (Doe #26) 25
4/9/2005 Heriberto Echeverria Caballero (Doe # 32) 18
4/11/2005 Jose Antonio Paredes Leon (Doe #35) 46
4/13/2005 Gualberto Felix Caro (Doe #38) 26
4/13/2005 Moises Rojas Laparra (Doe #39) 20
4/14/2005 Estela Tenorio (Doe #7) 21
4/21/2005 Jose O Benavidez (Doe #46) 32
4/22/2005 Isabel Cano Galvez (Doe #8) 17
4/23/2005 Agustin Maldonado Cazarez 21
5/4/2005 Margarita Guerra-Escalera (Doe #9) 42
5/14/2005 Juan De Jesus Rivera Cota 16
5/18/2005 Mario Alberto Esquivel Lopez 21
5/21/2005 Marco Antonio Nunez Tapia 27
5/21/2005 Maria Trinidad Tamal Civil (Doe #10) 42
5/22/2005 Carlos Morales De Jesus (Doe #59) 27
5/22/2005 Luis Arturo Justo Tapia 30
5/23/2005 Dionisio Cristobal Candelario 40
5/23/2005 Melchor Barcenas Mariscal 37
5/23/2005 Jose Ramiro Nicolas Francisco 15
5/24/2005 Eduardo Zamarripa Olivas 35
5/25/2005 Sergio Martinez Ramirez (Doe #63) 37
5/26/2005 Eddie Humberto Villanueva Fuentes (Doe #65) 18
5/26/2005 Pablo Gonzalez-Villanueva (Doe #66) 20
5/27/2005 Patricia Morales Calderon 32
5/28/2005 Fernando Limas Garfias (Doe #68) 31
5/29/2005 Jose Refugio Perez Lopez (Doe #75) 53
5/29/2005 Jose Vizueth Gonzalez (Doe #69) 19
5/29/2005 Oscar Valdovinos Neri (Doe #70) 35
5/30/2005 Jorge Gomez Chacon (Doe #71) 38
5/26/2005 Manuel Perez De La Cruz 18
6/2/2005 Reynaldo Olivares Gonzalez (Doe #74) 45
6/12/2005 Jorge Carballo Orozco (Doe #77) 50
6/17/2005 Jose Luis Zacarias De La Cruz (Doe #81) 31
6/21/2005 Eugenio Rafael Cazares Aguilar (Doe #84) 38
6/22/2005 Jaime Zamora Venegas (Doe 84) 31
6/25/2005 Juan Carlos Rodriguez (Doe 87) 28
6/28/2005 Ruben Trejo Carrera 43
6/29/2005 Alejandro Palomar Campos (Doe #91) 33
6/30/2005 Rusbel Cano Lopez (Doe #92) 28
7/2/2005 Hector Carbajal Martinez 26
7/3/2005 Marco Antonio Gutierrez Roblero (Doe #94) 27
7/4/2005 Laura Rios Garcia 19
7/4/2005 Beatriz Adriana Sanchez Salazar 26
7/5/2005 Luis Miguel Morales Hernandez 24
7/6/2005 Natalia Noclas Martinez 21
7/7/2005 Julio Cesar Garcia-Ralda (Doe #96) 21
7/7/2005 Luz Maria Galindo Castrejon (Doe #17) 32
7/7/2005 Jose Eusebio Arias Arias 38
7/7/2005 Rene Mejia Andres (Doe #95) 19
7/8/2005 Ana Maria Rojas Fragoso 39
7/7/2005 Jose Gabriel Gaytan Vazquez 20
7/9/2005 Benjamin Melecio Ramirez 48
7/10/2005 Estela Bautista Vasquez 38
7/10/2005 Maria Del Carmen Martinez-Dominguez (Doe #20) 42
7/11/2005 Esteban Salazar Hernandez (Doe #103) 46
7/11/2005 Jesus Hernandez-Hernandez 23
7/12/2005 Lucia Gregorio Maldonado (Doe #22) 33
7/12/2005 Irma Epianio Pasion (Doe #21) 29
7/12/2005 Jorge Javier Roldan 50
7/12/2005 Erica Rojas Garcia 20
7/13/2005 Patricio Perez Perez 32
7/13/2005 Eunice Diaz Velazquez 17
7/13/2005 Edilberta Anzurez Rivera 21
7/13/2005 Delfina Coatl Osorio 23
7/13/2005 Gil Tovilla Morales (Doe #105) 42
7/13/2005 Moises Marquez Flores 39
7/14/2005 Rufina Antonieta Tantas Botiquin (Doe #24) 35
7/15/2005 Alejamdro Hernandez Mata 24
7/15/2005 Juan Pablo Dominguez Borgez (Doe #106) 29
7/15/2005 Maria Rudy Aguilar Santiz 22
7/16/2005 Luis Arturo Martinez Lorenzana 12
7/16/2005 Isidrio Hernandez Navarro (Doe #108) 27
7/17/2005 Josefina Cruz Aguilar (Doe #27) 31
7/17/2005 Martin Resendis Panzo (Doe #116) 24
7/18/2005 Nelson Eduardo Aguistin Raymundo (Doe #111) 15
7/18/2005 Alfanza Delfino Tapia 30
7/18/2005 Yesmin Francisca Diaz Perez 19
7/18/2005 Maria Velasco Bautista 24
7/18/2005 Jose Victor Calderon Morales 32
7/18/2005 Maximino Barriento Carajal (Doe #112) 27
7/19/2005 Rigoberto Garcia Romero 23
7/21/2005 Jose Alfredo Martinez Melendez (Doe #117) 35
7/23/2005 Lucresia Dominguez Luna 35
7/26/2005 Jessica Elizabeth Jimenez 18
7/27/2005 Ernesto Perez Sanchez (Doe #123) 27
7/30/2005 Gerardo Moreno Cisneros 25
7/30/2005 Adan Perez Lopez (Doe #124) 24
7/31/2005 Roberto Ward Valenzuela (Doe #125) 24
7/31/2005 Jose Luis Estrada Morales (Doe #126) 50
7/31/2005 Carlos Armando Pena Cortez 30
8/1/2005 Juan Manuel Echevarria Linarte (Doe #127) 35
8/1/2005 Luis Alberto Juarez Perez (Doe #129) 16
8/1/2005 Juan Perez Santiago (Doe #128) 14
8/12/2005 Justino Menedez Ramos 25
8/16/2005 Jose Guadalupe Navarro Esquivel (Doe #134) 25
8/20/2005 Nicacio Perez Lopez (Doe #140) 43
8/20/2005 Claudeth Dilean Sanchez Urbina (Doe #34) 22
8/21/2005 Pedro Gonzalez Vargas (Doe #138) 46
8/28/2005 Reginaldo Mendoza Perez (Doe #145) 36
9/2/2005 Cristhian Rene Felix Arvallo (Doe #148) 19
9/3/2005 Jose Antonio Hernandez UNKNOWN
9/6/2005 Jaime Vega Torres 54
9/10/2005 Gregorio Mariano Dolores 23
9/11/2005 Fausto Donaciano Bernal Lemus 51
9/11/2005 Martin Martinez Serrano (Doe #153) 29
9/19/2005 Baby Boy Arizaga 0
9/20/2005 Rafael Fidencio-Ortega 36
9/24/2005 Martin Garcia-Garcia 18
9/24/2005 Eduardo Corrales Vega (Doe #161) 18
9/26/2005 Ricardo Vazquez Aguilar (Doe #162) 47
9/26/2005 Luiz Carlos Barbosa (Doe #165) 36
9/30/2005 Eduardo Sanchez Gomez (Doe #159) 17
10/6/2005 Fulgencio Montalvo Mendez 28
10/13/2005 Eusebio Luna Mar (Doe #171) 37
10/18/2005 Raul Torres Flores (Doe #173) 31
11/3/2005 Constantino Vasquez Alvarez (Doe #180) 57
11/19/2005 Francisco Javier Bracamontes 32
11/21/2005 Ruben Garcia Lopez (Doe #191) 27
11/24/2005 Ismael Gamez Diaz (Doe #193) 24
12/1/2005 Jose Manuel Casimiro Juarez 37
12/4/2005 Francisca De La Cruz Lopez (Doe #45) 36
12/20/2005 Ismael R Silerio (Doe #202) 26

BMI

MORE INFORMATION

2006 Report on Migrant Deaths at theU.S.-Mexico Border: El Paso-New Mexico Border Region 2006, BNHR.org

BMI - "The 'Funnel Effect' & Recovering Bodies of Unauthorized Migrants Processed by the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner, 1990-2005"

GAO - "Border-Crossing Deaths Have Doubled Since 1995; Border Patrol’s Efforts to Prevent Deaths Have Not Been Fully Evaluated"

HOW YOU CAN HELP

No More Deaths

Humane Borders

Border Action Network

2007 International Conference on the Migrant

tags: immigration, migrant deaths , NAFTA, border security

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Summary only...

The key to immigration reform: addressing its root causes (Part I)

Over the past two years, over 900 migrants have perished making the hazardous journey through the desert to make new lives in "el Norte." Some were small coffee growers from Vera Cruz, chicken farmers from Jalisco, or vegetable growers from Guadalajara. Others were indigenous subsistence farmers from the Chiapas highlands no longer able to eek out a living. Still others were Guatemalan migrant workers who could not find work on either side of Mexico's border and jumped on El Tren de Muerte (The Death Train) in Tapachula for the first leg of their journey, boarding alongside Salvadorans escaping decades of political upheaval and Hondurans escaping crushing poverty.

Between 6 and 7 million people have taken the arduous journey north, many within the last ten years, most of them coming from poor agriultural areas that are no longer able to support their growing populations. Yet, with all the debate about reforming US immigration policy and securing the borders, we have not heard one solid proposal to address the root causes of this massive migration. The question of why so many must leave their homes and families to simply survive is rarely mentioned, but remains the missing piece in the comprehensive immigration reform puzzle.

tags: immigration, NAFTA , free trade, poverty

Most people recognize that the economic conditions in Central and South America drive much of the current migration. It's widely acknowledged that most sender nations suffer from economic inequities that leave the vast majority of their populations living in abject poverty while a small elite ruling class controls most of the wealth. In Mexico for instance, nearly half of its 106 million people live in poverty, yet it has more billionaires than Switzerland. But what has fostered these inequities and in fact exacerbated them over the last ten or fifteen is not widely discussed. It is this deeper understanding of the complexities of the issue that seem to be absent from much of the debate.

From the immigration hawks we hear that a mix of government corruption and an inability or unwillingness on the part of people from these countries to effect change has led to the problems in this region. Lou Dobbs tells us that a greedy Mexican government intentionally ships its poor here to avoid upheaval. Others admonish the undocumented migrants living in the US, suggesting they return home and work to fix their own countries rather than look for acceptance here.

Those supporting comprehensive reform skirt around the issue of causation, looking instead for methods to regulate and accommodate this increasing flow of migrants. Looking to change or shuffle quotas and grant temporary worker status to a large percentage of newly arriving migrants, their plan is also flawed and incomplete. It doesn't address the reasons this migration is taking place.

No plan, be it walls and armed guards every 50 yards, or quota changes and guest workers can ever work without first looking at why the migration is taking place and figuring out what can be done, at least in this hemisphere, to curtail the poverty, political upheaval and social injustice that foster mass migration. To try to reform immigration without addressing its root causes is like trying to fix a broken pipe without turning off the water.

Certainly, one of the greatest factors in the social and economic changes that have taken place in much of Latin America in recent decades can be directly traced to the proliferation of free trade agreements coupled with an embracing of a Reaganesque philosophy of laissez faire economics and deregulation by many Latin leaders.

No country has embraced the idea of free trade and deregulation more than Mexico. Beginning in 1987 with its membership of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), Mexico has signed more free trade agreements than any other country in the world. In 1994, it joined NAFTA and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Since then there have been very few trade agreements Mexico has not been part of. These agreements in general and NAFTA in particular, while helping certain segments of Mexico's economy, have had devastating effects on the rural poor, the group that makes up the bulk of the current economic migrants arriving each year in the US.

Another factor that has driven migration has been political and social instability. Fifteen years after the end of its civil war, El Salvador sends more people per capita to the US than any other country. One third of its population currently lives outside its borders, the majority of them in the U.S. and its economy is reliant on the remittances they send back. After decades of US intervention and meddling in its internal affairs, the peace accords that ended years of violence have failed to truly bring peace, leaving hundreds to flee each day to find security, both personal and economic.

The US cannot solve all the worlds problems and the leadership in these countries must shoulder much of the responsibilty for the current situation, but in many cases the problems in Latin America continue to be very much of our own making. Our policies, both economic and diplomatic, have helped to both foster and perpetuate many of the conditions that have lead to the massive migration going on today. From 600,000 Latin American coffee farmers losing their land and their livelihoods over the past five years as a result of a pricing crisis, to the loss of 2 million agricultural jobs in Mexico between 1993 and 2003, the trade policies favored by the US and embraced by our trading partners have had devastating effects on the poor and working classes on both sides of the border. There is very little difference between the US autoworker who has lost his job to outsourcing and the Mexican maquiladora worker who now finds his job sent to China.

If we are to truly reform our immigration policies we must start to look at these economic and political realities and start to craft policy that addresses these root causes of migration. We must start to see the interconnection between the effects of free trade policies on our own economy and the economy of sender nations and we must examine how our foreign policy has fostered economic inequality and political upheaval throughout the region. Until we address these problems no true immigration reform can be enacted.


Part II: NAFTA and its effects on Mexico's economy

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Summary only...

A comprehensive look at comprehensive immigration reform.

With the coming election, a new round of debate has opened up on the issue of immigration and immigration reform.

With both parties trying to define their positions on migrant and immigration issues, perhaps it is time to re-examine what needs to be done about this issue and perhaps re-define the goals and terms of the debate. With the emergence of a new growing populism within the progressive ranks, it is important that we not be drawn to solutions and proposals that run contrary to the basic progressive beliefs in human value and dignity.

With that in mind, what follows is a proposal for how to address this issue effectively while still remaining true to the ideals of liberal and progressive thought… a policy paper if you must… but I'd rather think of it as a starting point for meaningful dialogue.

tags: immigration, immigration policy , guest worker,immigration reform

GETTING TO THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM: COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM AND WORKING AMERICANS

Introduction

After years of controversy and partisan infighting, we appear today no closer to any meaningful new national immigration policy than we were nearly eight years ago when President Bush first claimed he would make it a priority upon taking office. Much of the blame for this situation clearly rests on the shoulders of the President and his party, who during six years of unopposed control of government, failed to reach any acceptable compromise.

But, there have also been divisions within the Democratic Party that have helped stall the effort. While stating a uniform policy of supporting some sort of "comprehensive reform", exactly what constitutes such reform can differ greatly within the Democratic Party.

Currently undocumented immigrants traverse the borders daily risking their lives, and sometimes losing them, in order to find work and security in the United States. Perhaps upwards to a 500,000 undocumented people each year find a way, whether it be by overstaying a visa, or crossing hundreds of miles deadly desert, to enter this country in hopes of making a better life.

Americans of diferent political stripes seem concerned about this situation, but there is great division on exactly how to solve the problem. Some have advocated a tightening of security and closing of the porous border as a solution. Others have promoted a method to regulate the flow of new immigrants and legitimization the undocumented.

But there is one thing missing in both of these strategies.

Neither contains any analysis of why this problem exists, and more importantly, why at this particular time in our history the current influx of new immigrants is causing such great concern for many Americans.

Neither group seems concerned with root causes.

The number of immigrants has not really changed

Throughout our history we have encountered many waves of immigration. In fact, most Americans can trace our roots back to foreign shores one way or another, albeit for some, not of their own accord. The number of new immigrants who come today, both entering through proper channels and the undocumented, is no greater as a percentage of population than at many other times during our history. From the late-nineteenth century, through the first thirty years of the last, immigrants represented about 14.6% of the total population (1) ; today that number is 12% (2).

Certainly our earlier immigrants were not rich, and most had limited education, but they, like our current crop of immigrants, had the drive and determination to seek out a better life. This influx of new vitality and ambition has been a cornerstone on which the nation was build.

So why today do we find ourselves in the middle of what some would term a crisis?


What is different today then during past immigration waves?

Historically there have always been a number of protectionists who've opposed immigration for xenophobic or racists reason, but generally, as a nation, we have accepted new immigrants, and they have eventually taken their place in the American mosaic. This not to say that the immigrant experience has not been rife with tensions, or that they have always been welcomed with open arms, history proves diferently, but over time each group has found a place. Yet, today many seem to be finding it harder and harder to accept our newest arrivals. Why do so many believe the new immigrants are putting undo pressures on our economy, creating stresses on a tight job market, and stretching already taxed social services and education systems?

Why today do we find it so hard to absorb these new immigrants? Why at a time in our history, when we are still the richest nation in the world despite our current economic difficulties, and are more educated as a population and have a higher standard of living than during past waves of immigration, do many believe that these new immigrants are putting such great stresses on our society? Perhaps we need to look at some of the changes that have taken place over the last twenty-five or so years to find the answer.

THE SYSTEMATIC ASSAULT ON WORKING AND MIDDLE-CLASS AMERICANS

Over the past twenty five years there's been a systematic assault upon the working and middle classes of this nation which now leaves many vulnerable and in a position where they must compete for an ever decreasing pool of resources. At one time, a family could live comfortably on the income of one earner, but today it takes two just to make ends meet. A guaranteed pension for retirement is no longer the norm. A union card no longer guarantees a lifetime of job security. Health insurance costs have become an overwhelming concern for both workers and employers and forty five million Americans in fact go without any. A job with one of the nation's largest companies no longer means yearly raises and increased benefits; in fact it doesn't even guarantee job security. An advanced degree no longer means a career in your chosen field. Today, working and middle class Americans can expect plant closings and layoffs, pay cuts and increased hours, loss of benefits and outsourcing. They can expect economists to talk about "jobless recoveries" and increased productivity. It is no wonder that many working-class Americans are feeling the added stresses of our new modern global economy and are looking for an avenue to vent their frustrations.

Our nation is sick, and the perceived "immigration crisis" is not the cause of this national illness, but just another symptom of it.

Who is responsible for this situation?

The answer is simple ... the economic and social policies of those who claim to be economic conservatives that favor an elite class of the economically privileged over the vast majority of Americans.

Of course, many working class Americans might scoff at this idea. Certainly a philosophy of smaller government, personal responsibility and free-market economics sounds appealing to many, and on face value alone is quite in line with the principles on which our nation was founded. But in practice, what these so called Conservatives have done with this philosophy has been the antithesis of what the founders had in mind. These Conservatives have used this philosophy to consolidate economic and political power in the hands of the few at the expense of the many. They have turned the ideals of fair play and Christian charity upside down and transformed them into grotesque parodies.

They have taken two hundred years of struggle to raise the standard of living for the average American and thrown it to the winds, all in the name of "fiscal responsibility" and "smaller government." All along being neither fiscally responsible nor providing smaller government.

How did they do this?

How did these self-proclaimed Conservatives wage this war on the working and middle class? In a nutshell, with two policies that came to define the Reagan era; deregulation and union busting. They've continued with more failed and flawed policies right up until our present day in alliance with business interests and the economic elite who benefit most from this agenda.

Union Busting

Starting with the firing of the air traffic controllers in 1981, Conservatives have set forth an agenda through legislation and judicial decisions to slowly disassemble the American labor movement. At the time, many Americans supported the idea, feeling that unions had become too powerful, corrupt and greedy, but the results of this policy have had devastating effects on American workers. Conservatives advocating "right to work" legislation under the guise that it allowed workers free choice whether or not to join a union, have in effect allowed employers to guarantee open shops and eventually drive the unions out of many sectors of the US economy. Ever since the eighties the number of union households has been steadily declining from a high of 20.1 % in 1983 to 12.5% in 2005 (3). Today Wal Mart, the nations largest employer, continually fights against the unionization of it's employees using laws and policies put in place by conservative legislators.

At the beckoning of corporate interests, Conservatives have managed to take what was once the bulwark of working class America, the very entity that allowed millions of American workers to move themselves or their children into the middle class, and rendered it powerless.

Deregulation

Under the guise of increased competition and lower prices through free-market forces, Conservatives began a campaign of deregulation. They would no longer allow the government to regulate business, but rather leave it up to the free market. Again, on paper this practice looked reasonable, but under their control we have ended up with the reverse.

Instead of government controlling business, we now have business controlling government.

We have allowed business combinations that rival any of those of the Robber Barons of the late nineteenth century. We have seen regulated monopolies in the energy, telecom, airline and other industries destroyed, only to recombine into unregulated monsters like Enron. We have seen the merger of mega oil companies that are larger than those of Rockefeller's Standard Oil, who make profits that would make King Midis blush, while the average American can't afford to fill up his gas tank.

Globalization and outsourcing

The next logical step after domestic deregulation for Conservatives was globalization and the taking of their idea of the free market economy, without any government regulation, to a global scale. Conservatives passed legislation and trade agreements that allowed huge multinational companies to operate with impunity throughout the world. Believing that free markets, free trade, and the unrestricted flow of capital would produce the greatest social, political and economic good, Conservative policies have left our nation with record trade imbalances (4) and a national debt of over 8 trillion dollars (5) , much of it underwritten by economically rival nations like China (6,7). Hundreds of free trade agreements have been signed that have in many cases had devastating effects not only for US workers, but decimated industries in foreign countries. In Mexico in particular, free trade agreements have destroyed large sections of the agricultural sector (8), leading to increased immigration to the US. They have allowed companies like Halliburton to set up shadow entities on foreign soil to avoid paying taxes.

They've allowed American businesses to sell American jobs to the lowest bidder on the global market all in the name of free market economics.

Rewriting the tax codes and starving the beast

Conservatives often say that the only thing wrong with government is government, and promise to lower taxes, reduce the size of government, and be fiscally responsible. Yet, after years of Conservative leadership we have the largest government in US history, a record federal deficit and a record national debt of more than 8 trillion dollars. The only part of their philosophy they seem to be able to stick too is tax cuts.

They have systematically worked over the last twenty-five years to shift the tax burden from both big business and the top 1% of the nation's wealthiest people and place it on the middle and working class.

They have consistently rewarded corporations and the rich with larger and larger tax breaks. Through cuts in funding to education, health and human services and many other state and local programs they have managed to shift the tax burden down to the local level so that average Americans now pay more in real estate, state and local, use and sales taxes than ever before. They have not given the American people "back their money" as they claim, but rather forced them to just pay more to other government agencies.

The other aspect of the Conservative tax cutting agenda has been to use cuts as a means to, as they term it; "starve the beast". It's been conservative policy to try to assure that social programs for education, childcare, healthcare and the poor are "starved to death" due to the lack of available federal funds.

Their philosophy has resulted in huge benefits for the rich while programs that poor, working and middle class Americans rely on are cut. The best example of this is public education, where Conservatives have consistently cut funding while placing ever more increasing demands upon the system.

Healthcare

Another big concern for average Americans is healthcare and its skyrocketing costs. Conservative deregulation and free market philosophies have influenced this also. While fighting vehemently against any form of a national healthcare program, they have through legislation and governmental agencies, allowed large pharmaceutical manufactures, insurance companies, and healthcare conglomerates to set the agenda.

National health policy has been written by insurance companies and other corporate interests rather than physicians and medical professionals. A policy that has left 45 million Americans without basic health insurance and millions more grossly under-insured and paying a large percentage of medical costs out of pocket

.

But What Does All This Have To Do With Immigration?

These Conservative policies that favor the economic elite have had devastating effects on the working and middle classes, yet in order to remain in power they have tried to shift the blame. Every problem that is claimed to be a result of the "immigration crisis" can be seen to have its roots in Conservative economic and social policies.

Conservatives and power elites have been trying to convince the American people that it is immigrants who have put all the stresses on education, social services and healthcare institutions and that they take jobs from American workers and drive down wages. But it must be understood that while immigrants highlight the problems of working class Americans, they haven't caused them. Those who have caused these problems have played upon race, bigotry and ignorance to further muddy the waters, and distract the American people away from the real reasons for their economic concerns and discontent. History is ripe with examples of scapegoating those not in society's mainstream, and this time it is no different.

All these problems can be seen as direct results of twenty-five years of Conservative policy. This is obvious when you look at the root causes. The Republican controlled Congress for the last ten years has exacerbated the situation by rubber-stamping every Conservative policy that has come down the pike. With each passing year they have taken more and more from working Americans and given it to their corrupt corporate masters. Now there is nothing left, and the American working man and woman knows it.

What can we do?

We, as a nation need to stop letting those who don't have our best interests at heart control the agenda. We must not allow them to divide us along lines of class, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or gender. We must not allow them to misdirect us or mislead us with appeals to our patriotism or national pride. We must not allow them to fan the flames of racial or ethnic bigotry to distracts us. We must not let them blame the symptoms rather than the disease.

The so called "immigration crisis" is just another symptom of a far greater disease ... the disease of an agenda that favors the rich and big business over average Americans. The influx of new immigrants certainly highlights the problems of the now decimated social programs, education and health care systems, but they did not cause the national illness.

How do we "fix" immigration?

Fixing our broken immigration system will not be easy, and it will be a long hard process. Again just as in the case of working Americans, one key must be to look for the ROOT CAUSES OF THE PROBLEM. We must look at the reasons why millions of people every year risk their lives to come here? What is it about their countries of origin that make them so desperate to leave? Take the the case of Mexico. It's a nation that has the 13th largest economy in the world, ahead of 167 other nations. They also are the second largest recipients of direct investment by US companies in the hemisphere. On top of that Mexico has vast amounts of untapped natural resources and oil reserves that rival those of any Middle Eastern power. So why do so many live in poverty? Why must they come here simply to survive? Could it be precisely because they are the second largest recipients of direct investment by US big business? Could it be because US trade and economic policies have been crafted to favor the business elite and the ruling classes of Mexico, just as they favor them here? Could it be because US policies help perpetuate a system that leaves 55% of the countries wealth in the hands of 20% of its people? These are all things that need to be addressed when looking at the "immigration crisis".

WHAT SHOULD MEANINGFUL IMMIGRATION REFORM LOOK LIKE ?

Despite what many claim, support for some sort of comprehensive immigration reform is not tantamount to calling for "open borders" , unrestricted immigration" or as Lou Dobbs like to claim, "importing half the population of Mexico into the US." While some from the left, and both the Libertarian and Free Trade right, favor open borders and the total unrestricted flow of people, goods and services between nations, most pro-immigration advocates don't. They see our current "immigration problem" as a failure of our system to live up to its historical duty to allow for the reasonable flow of people from all over the world to come to this nation to make a better life, add vitality and diversity to our national mosaic, and join in the great American democratic experiment. The key phrase being: "reasonable flow".

Two economic facts must be taken as givens in any discussion of immigration reform if we are to make any real progress towards meaningful reform:

• 1. We need immigration. Currently there are an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the US of which 7.5 million are in the workforce, with approximately a million more joining them each year. Additionally, we allow for roughly a million "legal" immigrants to enter each year. 98% of all undocumented immigrants eligible to work (excluding children and stay-at-home mothers of young children), do so, and the US unemployment rate floats around 5% or roughly 7 million people. We need these workers, it's just a fact





• 2. Undocumented immigrants can keep wages artificially low in a few select industries that rely on them for the bulk of their workforce, particularly effecting legal-resident and natuarlaized workers. Employers in these sectors, able to pay undocumented workers less, take advantage of a severely broken immigration system to exploit the most vulnerable members of society. The solution to this problem is not to eliminate the immigrant workforce in order to force wages up due to a lack of needed workers. The solution is to put these workers on a path to legalization in order that employers can no longer exploit them. Numerous studies show that once an immigrant attains legal status his wages and benefits go up and his employer begins to adhere to federal and state workplace regulations. It's a self policing system.

With these two basic premises accepted, it becomes clear what the goal of any rational immigration reform should be: Allow for a reasonable flow of new immigrants and figure out a way to allow them to enter the country legally.

What is a reasonable flow of immigration?

How do we determine what the "reasonable" amount of immigrants to allow each year should be?

For those immigrants admitted for employment reasons, the number should be determined by a floating scale that takes into account the number of available jobs, the current unemployment rate, the number of green cards issued the previously year measured against the number applied for. In other words use simple supply and demand. As long as there is a demand for increased immigration, there must be a legal way meet that demand.

At the present time we have no legal means to supply needed workers, or allow for families to remain intact, hence they are forced to enter the country illegally and live in the shadows.

Obviously we must first raise the quotas to more accurately reflect the realities of what is actually going on.

We must also eliminate the per-country cap that favors smaller nations with fewer immigrant applicants over those countries that have long traditional ties to the US.

We must raise the 5000 maximum cap on unskilled worker green cards issued each year to reflect the true needs of the national labor pool.

We need to ease restrictions on family reunification and rework the diversity "lottery" and refugee policies to better serve the needs of those who face a clear and present danger in their countries of origin.

One possible solution

Perhaps there is a better way to formulate such important and complicated policy. Perhaps we should institute an independent "immigration policy board" that is free of elected officials, made up of experts in immigration, economists, labor and immigrant advocates, that could be charged with the responsibility of formulating certain aspects of immigration policy.

At present it's basically a decision made by politicians.

As we saw during the debates over Comprehensive Immigration Reform, legislators seem to pull numbers out of thin air, check with "business" leaders, take some foreign policy considerations, think about sound bites, spin, and firing up the base, then put it all in a big bowl and mix it up and serve it to the American people as policy.

This is politics as usual, but it doesn't have to be.

There needs to be something set up independent of elected government, something similar to the way the Federal Reserve is set up, and sets interest rates. An independent "immigration policy board", charged with setting the immigration levels and working out policy. They could be the ones to determine how many of each visa class to issue each year or how many green cards etc. rather than our elected officials.

This seems to be a logical alternative to the current system. We do not allow elected officials to set the Fed interest rates because they lack the necessary expertise to do so, and we know they'd set them at 0% in election years, and 30% in off years.

The same should be true with immigration policy. Between pressure from big business, the natural tendency for politicians to pander for votes, and other political calculations, perhaps elected officials are not the best choice for formulating the nuts and bolts of immigration policy.

This policy board's mission would be to gather information, listen to testimony, call in experts, listen to lobbyists, immigrants advocates, etc., then make their recommendations for the following years "quotas". Each year they would then adjust them according to economic conditions, world events, the previous year's successes and/or failures, unemployment rates, etc.

This way the whole affair is taken out of the hands of both the politicians and the business interests that control them.

The AFL-CIO advocates a similar process in theory. They instead have called for all caps on the number of employment-based visas issued each year to be set by the U.S. Department of Labor based on economic indicators that establish the needs of particular industries, not by political compromise.

Once we have determined what reasonable levels of immigration are, then and only then can we begin to look at border security. Once we remove millions of would-be undocumented immigrants from the mix by providing them a legal path to immigration, we can formulate an effective border security plan. To do the reverse, and try to secure the border before reforming the immigration system is like trying to fix a leaky pipe without turning off the water. We need to channel our immigration through legal points of entry, before we can plug the holes in the border.

ADDRESSING THE ROOT CAUSES OF MIGRATION

We need to take a complete and comprehensive approach to immigration reform, and this includes something none of the present legislation accounts for. We need to look at the reasons why millions of people each year are compelled to risk their lives to enter this country illegally. This includes an examination of the effects of US foreign policy and trade policies that have fostered poverty and political upheaval throughout much of the third world.

Why is it that Mexico, a country with the thirteenth largest economy in the world, has large portions of it's population living in abject poverty? How have we allowed US corn exports to decimate local Mexican economies? How come NAFTA and WTO trade restrictions have been allowed to cause of the collapse of the coffee industry throughout much of Central America?

The US has power to do both great good and great harm throughout the third world with its economic and foreign policy decisions and we must start to look at the long term ramifications of these policies. Rather than allowing US business interests to dictate trade and economic policy, we need to view these policies in light of their long term effects on both foreign economies and our own.

Let's look at what globalization has done to both the US and Mexican economies. At first, under NAFTA US companies outsourced American jobs to Mexico where they could find cheaper labor and less government restriction. Over time these jobs have now been outsourced from Mexico to Asia, where even cheaper labor and less government interference can be found. As long as US economic and trade policy is based solely upon the interests of big business, and the exploitation of the current cheapest labor force, this race to the bottom will continue. Until we begin to address the true causes for the mass migration of people who live in abject poverty in countries that have more than enough resources to provide a reasonable lifestyle for its entire population, we will never get a handle on the "immigration problem"

RAISING STANDARDS FOR ALL U.S. WORKERS

Many Democrats, and particularly Progressives, look at increasing the penalties for hiring undocumented workers as a panacea for solving the "immigration crisis". This of course stems from a natural distrust of corporate America by working people ....and rightfully so. Many corporations benefit greatly from our current ineffective immigration system. It allows for abuses and exploitation of workers both immigrant and native–born.

But once again we need to look at ROOT CAUSATION when addressing worker abuse.

The problem with the exploitation of workers is at its core not a problem of lack of enforcement of immigration laws in the workplace, but rather the lack of enforcement of LABOR laws in the workplace. Unfair labor practices, failures to adhere to wage and hour regulations, unsafe working conditions, lack of employee protections, harassment or obstruction of efforts to organize ...these are not immigration problems, but rather labor problems.

In order to raise the standards for all workers, both US-born and immigrant, the labor and employment laws of this country need to be more strictly enforced.

Currently "workplace enforcement" revolves around the government rooting out unauthorized workers and deporting them. The businesses rarely receive any punishments and when they do they quickly pass those costs on to consumers through higher prices as part of the cost of doing business. But the terrible working conditions that have relegated those jobs to ones that only undocumented immigrants will accept remain the same.

This paradigm needs to shift. The government needs to shift its focus from attacking the symptom of unfair labor practices, to attacking those practices themselves.

Instead of swat teams of ICE agents storming factories and meatpacking plants looking for undocumented immigrants, we need armies of inspectors from the Department of Labor, OSHA, and other agencies, looking for labor violations and evidence of unfair labor practices. This is how you raise the standards for all US workers.

Reforming immigration policy to benefit all workers

Allowing for reasonable rates of immigration and the legalization of all current undocumented immigrants would in fact start a process by which all US workers could begin to reverse the thirty-year decline in real wages and benefits. The inclusion of 7.5 million newly legal workers to the workforce would go a long way to stem this tide. This is why the immigrant's rights movements has the support of the largest unions in the country. The Services Workers, Laborers International and the AFL-CIO have all backed comprehensive immigration reform and the legalization of workers already living in the country. They realize that if they could unionize the current immigrants already in the country and add ½ million or so new members each year from new immigrants, they could possibly revitalize the workers movement, and regain much of the power they have been lacking for the past thirty years.

At the polls, these new Americans would have a voice in formulating policies more favorable to working families. Things like universal health care, education, a living wage and an equitable tax code would move to the forefront. This is one reason Bush and his big business buddies are so enthralled with his "guest worker" program. It supplies businesses with workers, while keeping them from unionizing and more importantly eventually voting. The last thing the economic elite want is a larger working class voting block to contend with. This is why they push so had for guest worker progrmas, they want them to enter as temporary workers, to be shipped back home before they can gain political clout. Contrary to what the right-wing would have Americans believe, immigrants are not the enemy of working men and women, but rather natural allies in the struggle for a better life.

CONCLUSION

While this is far from a complete analysis, or comprehensive plan to address all the aspect of this complex issue, it does represent a starting point for understanding what a plan for meaningful immigration reform entails.

• *Formulate a reasonable, humane, fair and practical method for determining the levels of immigration going forward. Perhaps by an independent policy board free from the pressures of political expediency and business interests.



• *Address the root causes of immigration, and change US policy so that it doesn't foster and produce conditions that force millions of people each year to leave their countries of origin in order to simply survive. Tie all future trade, military, and foreign aid agreements to not only worker protections both here and abroad, but also to their ability to foster economic progress for the working class and poor in sender nations.



• *Provide a path to legalization for all current undocumented immigrants living and working in the US.



• *Secure the border by first ensuring that the vast majority of new immigrants have the ability and opportunity to legally enter the country through a legal port of entry. This would curtail the flow of immigration through illegal channels, then work to physically secure the border could take place where necessary. Only after that, interior and workplace enforcement could begin to ensure compliance.




• *Opposition to a "guest worker" program on the grounds that it provides no benefit to the American people or the immigrants themselves. It only provides big business with a disposable work force that holds down real wages and prevents immigrants from becoming a viable force in the workplace or full fledge members of society.



• *Foster an immigration policy that strengthens the middle and working class through unionization and participation in the electoral process.



• *Strict enforcement of all labor and employment laws



• *Modernize and streamline the immigration process and eliminate the backlogs for those already in the queue



• *Recognize that immigration is a vital part of maintaining a healthy and vibrant America. It is what has set this nation apart from all others since its inspection. To close our borders to new immigrants is to cut off the lifeblood that has always made this nation grow and prosper.

This, I believe, is a reasonable starting point to proceed from.

FOOTNOTES


1 "From 1850 to 1930, the foreign-born population of the United States increased from 2.2 million to 14.2 million, reflecting large-scale immigration from Europe during most of this period.1 As a percentage of total population, the foreign-born population rose from 9.7 percent in 1850 and fluctuated in the 13 percent to 15 percent range from 1860 to 1920 before dropping to 11.6 percent in 1930. The highest percentages foreign born were 14.4 percent in 1870, 14.8 percent in 1890 and 14.7 percent in 1910."
US Census Bureau; "Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-born Population of the United States: 1850-1990"; http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0029/twps0029.html

2 "The Census Bureau estimated that the number of foreign-born people living in the United States topped 33 million and accounted for nearly 12 percent of the population in 2003--its highest share since 1930…. The foreign-born population, as defined by the Census Bureau, refers to all residents of the United States who were not U.S. citizens at birth, regardless of their current legal or citizenship status."
Congressional Budget Office; "A Description of the Immigrant Population", November 2004; http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=6019&sequence=0

3 "In 2005, 12.5 percent of wage and salary workers were union members, un-
changed from 2004, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics
reported today. The union membership rate has declined from a high of 20.1
percent in 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available."
US Dept of Labor News, January 20, 2006; http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm

4 "The U.S. Department of Commerce today reported that the international deficit in goods and services trade reached a record level of $726 billion in 2005, an 18% increase over 2004. The U.S. merchandise deficit alone, which excludes services, was $782 billion, also an 18% increase."
Economic Policy Institute, February 10, 2006, "Rapid growth in oil prices, Chinese imports pump up trade deficit to new record" http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_econindicators_tradepict20060210

5 National debt as of June 21,2006: $8,309,177,355,316.66
National Debt Clock; http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock


6 "The growth of the trade deficit with China, which reached $202 billion in 2005, was responsible for the entire increase in the United States’ non-oil trade deficit. The trade deficit in manufactured products (net of refined petroleum) increased $46 billion, to $655 billion (an 8% increase)."
Economic Policy Institute, February 10, 2006, "Rapid growth in oil prices, Chinese imports pump up trade deficit to new record"; http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_econindicators_tradepict20060210

7 Major foreign holders of US treasury securities as of April 2006; Japan – $639.2 B, China -$323.3 B, UK-$166.8 B
US Dept. of Treasury/ Federal Reserve; http://www.treas.gov/tic/mfh.txt

8 "Mexican farmers say hefty agricultural subsidies in the United States give American white corn and beans an unfair advantage over the Mexican market, which depends in large part on small-scale and mostly subsistence farmers… Mexico's agriculture minister pleaded with Canada and the United States this month to reconsider the removal of the corn and bean tariffs, but U.S. Undersecretary for Agriculture J.B. Penn flatly rejected the appeal."
ABC News, "Mexico Hopeful Takes Hard Line Vs. NAFTA", June 21, 2006; http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2089345

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