Thread: Politicians see no conflict in backing free trade, opposing

http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3165326

Of two minds about immigration
Politicians see no conflict in backing free trade, opposing illegal immigration
Mason Stockstill, Staff Writer

Widespread illegal immigration and free-trade agreements can share one consequence: a loss of job opportunities and depressed wages for American workers in certain sectors.
So why do many politicians support policies that seem to favor one of these phenomena over the other?

Whatever the amount, or the ancillary economic effects, many of the jobs worked by illegal immigrants would otherwise be filled by U.S. workers. Additionally, some say free-trade agreements have led to a decline in manufacturing jobs in this country, as businesses take advantage of low-wage labor available overseas.

At the same time, many see no contradiction in supporting free-trade agreements while working to limit illegal immigration. Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora, said the North American Free Trade Agreement didn't exacerbate the movement of U.S. jobs to Mexico, although many jobs have gone south since the legislation was signed in 1993.

"NAFTA did not create that shift," Dreier said. "Before NAFTA, any company was free to take advantage of low wages" overseas, he said.

While backing free-trade agreements such as NAFTA and its Central American counterpart, CAFTA, Dreier also has proposed a bill that would increase fines for hiring illegal immigrants and would require anyone seeking work in the country to show a revamped Social Security card. The intent of the legislation is to limit job opportunities for undocumented aliens.

Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Riverside, voted for NAFTA. At the same time, he's raised concerns about "unscrupulous employers" in the United States hiring illegal immigrants in order to cut costs.

It's not hard to see the impact that free-trade agreements such as NAFTA can have on U.S. jobs in certain sectors. Consumer advocacy group Public Citizen lists numerous factories, plants and textile mills that closed in the United States after NAFTA was approved, while the parent companies increased hiring in other nations.

Between 1994 and 2000, more than 500,000 U.S. workers applied for assistance from a government program intended to help those who lost their jobs when factories moved to Mexico under NAFTA.

The trend also can be illustrated closer to home. Ontario power plant supervisor Earl Richardson invented the modern electric iron in 1903, and found success selling it after he changed his company's name to Hotpoint.

The firm grew and was selling other appliances when General Electric purchased it in 1918. GE ran a manufacturing plant in Ontario until shuttering it in 1982.

Now, times have changed. GE's irons are made in China, and the firm plans to close its last Ontario plant a jet-engine repair site at Ontario Internationl Airport in 2006. The local chapter president of the United Electrical Machine Workers of America said the wages paid to GE's workers here are four or five times higher than what they would pay overseas.

None of that necessarily means free-trade agreements automatically cause job losses. There may be specific instances where firms moved their operations overseas, but the total benefit to the economy is positive, said Jack Pitney, a professor of political science at Claremont McKenna College.

"Overall, free trade creates more jobs than it costs," Pitney said, and it's not a contradiction for politicians to support trade agreements while backing stricter policies for illegal immigration. "On the one hand, you're creating jobs, while on the other hand, you're simply enforcing the law."

Between 1993 and 2003, the amount of trade between Canada, Mexico and the United States more than doubled, according to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative. All three countries saw their economies expand by more than 30 percent in the 10 years following the agreement's implementation. Additionally, Mexico's export sector has boomed: Wages are higher and migration is lower in states that conduct the most cross-border trade.

On the end of the political spectrum farthest away from Calvert and Dreier, the nation's largest federation of labor unions offers a similarly back-and-forth position. The AFL-CIO strongly opposes free-trade agreements. Federation President John Sweeney said CAFTA "will send more decent-paying American jobs offshore."

Yet the AFL-CIO backs legalization for the millions of illegal immigrants currently working jobs in the United States who, by most accounts, have reduced job opportunities for many American workers.

The union federation's position is that illegal immigrants are likely to be taken advantage of in the workplace as long as they remain undocumented.

Either way, experts say the situation where illegal immigrants work some U.S. jobs, and other U.S. jobs will continue to move overseas, isn't going away.

Much of the domestic job growth is coming in sectors such as service and retail low-wage work that immigrants are entering across the country. And the immigrants will continue to come, said Randy Capps of the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Institute.

"If wages are 10 times higher in the United States than they are in Mexico, it's a rational decision to try 10 times to cross the border," Capps said. "It's a hard problem to try to solve through border enforcement. It's a long border."

"see no conflict between free trade agreements and immigration issues"

FTAs open the borders for the "free-flow of people, labor and goods".

It's legal then. Come One Come All .... Legally.... Freely.....Flowing .... Flooding our nation LEGALLY.

Grrrrrrr!!!!!!

AT some point, you're going to have to address this little loophole in our activities.

The two things Free Trade and Illegal Immigration are two different things and we should have more of the first and less of the latter. It is unfortunate that the borders were open when we passed NAFTA because Mexicans thought it easier to break our laws than add value to the crops before they sold them into a low price market.

Free Trade is a Fraud!! Free Trade isn't "free". It's highly regulated by thousands of pages of regulations including transfer of power over commerce to the World Trade Organization. In addition it opens up the borders legally between the US and the nations involved in the Free Trade Agreements. The whole concept is Open Borders working towards an effective merger with other nations in our hemisphere. When trade matters move outside your sovereign authority, so does everything associated with business, commerce, labor, environmental impact, working safety standards, quality assurance--EVERYTHING that matters will be governed off shore by the World Trade Organization.

In my opinion we need NONE of Free Trade or Illegal Immigration or Excess Legal Immigration. NADA!