Thread: Illegal immi woes can be blamed squarely on LatinAmerica(op)

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Margarita MartÃÂ*n-Hidalgo: Illegal immigration woes can be blamed squarely on Latin America's corruption
12:54 AM CDT on Sunday, April 17, 2005

Every time I hear someone blasting President Bush for failing to provide an adequate residency program for illegal immigrants or trying to curb the flow of illegal immigration at the border, I want to bang my head against the wall and scream. Instead of pouncing on the president, critics should direct their vitriol at the source of our immigration woes: corrupt Latin American governments. Make no mistake: These governments condone illegal immigration to the United States and even promote it. Mexico did it blatantly most recently, when it published what amounts to a "how-to" guide on immigrating illegally into the United States. Illegal immigration provides a safety valve for the problems they don't want to deal with.

In fact, illegal immigration is a godsend. With billions of dollars a year pouring in from citizens living abroad – particularly citizens of Mexico and Central American countries – these governments are in no rush to make necessary economic, legal and education reforms.

It is no secret that the money sent home by nearly 8.4 million illegal immigrants has a significant impact on the economies in Latin America, especially in Mexico and Central America. A 2004 study on remittances conducted by the Florida-based political consulting firm Bendixen & Associates estimated that legal and illegal immigrants would send about $30 billion to Latin America that year. Thirty-two percent of those surveyed were living illegally in the United States.

Remittances sent by immigrants in the United States to Latin America and the Caribbean will surpass $400 billion for the decade, according to the Monetary Investment Fund, a lending institution that finances private projects in the region. A big chunk of that money will go to Mexico, the native country of nearly 6 million illegal immigrants here.

In some nations, the money received from abroad represents a significant portion of the gross domestic product (GDP). Records from the Migration Information Source show that in Nicaragua, remittances in 2001 represented 16.2 percent as a percetange of GDP. It was 14 percent in El Salvador for that same year, and in Haiti the Inter-American Development Bank estimated the figure for that nation was 24.2 percent.

Kleptocracies, not democracies: That's the running joke about governments in Latin America. Though the 1990s ushered more liberalized economic policies into the region, a deep-rooted culture of graft has curtailed much-anticipated progress. In recent years, high-profile figures accused of theft and embezzlement have included former presidents of Guatemala and Nicaragua. Several years ago, former Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Alemán was sentenced to 20 years in prison for fleecing his country of about $100 million.

Even traditionally well-behaved Costa Rica wasn't spared from a fraud-related fiasco: Bribery allegations against ex-President Miguel Angel RodrÃÂ*guez forced him to resign as secretary of the Organization of American States.

Such political scandals seriously hurt foreign investment. Who would want to invest under such conditions? No one who wants to see healthy returns and avoid a system of institutionalized bribery. No one who knows that some of these countries are ranked among the most corrupt in the world.

Records from Transparency International, a watchdog that keeps tabs on governmental fraud and misconduct, show that Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua share the dubious distinction of being among the shadiest in the world for five straight years.

Poor educational systems aggravate the social problems in many Latin American countries and parts of the Caribbean, most notably Haiti. Many people in these nations don't finish high school, which means they can't get already-limited decent paying jobs. That, in turn, means there is little opportunity for upward mobility.

And the absence of the rule of law is a bad joke throughout Latin America, which the World Health Organization in 2003 named the planet's most violent region.

Faced with all these crises, what do people do? Head for el norte.

The reality is we will never halt illegal immigration from Latin America. We can stave it off by policing our borders and even more effectively with foreign investment. But we desperately need help. We literally cannot continue to afford the burden illegal immigration has created on our society.

It is time our elected officials demand that Latin American leaders stop dragging their feet and pass necessary reforms to provide their citizens with a better quality of life. That is, after all, their duty – not ours.

Margarita MartÃÂ*n-Hidalgo covers the Carrollton-Farmers Branch and Coppell school districts for The Dallas Morning News. You may e-mail her at mmhidalgo@dallasnews.com

Make no mistake: These governments condone illegal immigration to the United States and even promote it. Mexico did it blatantly most recently, when it published what amounts to a "how-to" guide on immigrating illegally into the United States. Illegal immigration provides a safety valve for the problems they don't want to deal with.

Our stick is substantially larger than theirs is. Our problem is we have a habit of using it in the wrong places.

And the absence of the rule of law is a bad joke throughout Latin America, which the World Health Organization in 2003 named the planet's most violent region.

We all know that. It is becoming a bad joke here as well.

The reality is we will never halt illegal immigration from Latin America. We can stave it off by policing our borders and even more effectively with foreign investment.

Maybe we can't completely halt it, but we sure as heck can do a better job than we are doing now, which is pathetic.