Friday, August 1, 2008
Changing the economics of illegal immigration

By ERIN CARLYLE


Carlos Olamendi is tired of seeing Mexicans stream into the U.S. because of economic need.

Thirty-six years ago Olamendi, who is 52, emigrated here from Puebla, Mexico, driven by the economic conditions that push many Mexicans to cross the border. Olamendi came on a temporary visa, then overstayed it for years. He became a citizen in the 1980s, when President Ronald Reagan offered amnesty for those here illegally.

Now a successful Laguna Niguel restaurateur, Olamendi would like to see more Mexicans stay home – and prosper.

The goal, Olamendi said, "is to …establish immigration as an optional phenomenon, not a necessity."

Olamendi feels so strongly about Mexican economic prosperity that he moved back to Puebla two years ago to help. He worked for the government to implement his program, which aims to stem the tide of poblanos, or people who hail from his home state of Puebla, across the U.S.-Mexico border.

A stronger Mexican economy could relieve some of the pressure leading to illegal immigration from Mexico and reduce what is perceived as a strain on the American health care system, Olamendi argues. And a stronger Mexican economy could help reduce the number of Mexican immigrants who die trying to cross the border. Last year, 539 Mexicans died in the attempt – 27 of them from Olamendi's home state.

The Mexican government reports its national unemployment rate for 2007 as 3.7 percent – lower than American unemployment, which hovered between 4.4 and 5 percent that year.

However, the Mexican statistic is widely believed to be misleading and inaccurate. The CIA estimates that Mexican underemployment – people employed less than full time – was actually an additional 25 percent.

El Programa de Generacion de Patriminio Familiar, or Keeping Families Together, includes economic development in Mexico, health care and education for Mexican nationals in the U.S., and an emphasis on savings and family reunification in Mexico.

"Most importantly, it establishes a future," Olamendi said. "This is creating a situation where people don't have to leave town."

Under Olamendi's program,poblanos in the U.S. can apply for grants from the Mexican government to start small family businesses in Mexico. The government helps them develop a business plan, and provides a matching grant for every penny of their remittances – money immigrants send to their families back home – they save to invest in their projects.

"Bottom line, the reason we have the immigrants here is because of lack of opportunities in their homeland for jobs and better economic conditions," said economist Esmael Adibi, director of the Anderson Center for Economic Research at Chapman University. "So anything that could be done to enhance their opportunities in their homeland will be partially helpful to curtail the flow of illegal immigrants."

Since the program began in July 2007, 136 families from Puebla who live in the U.S. have started businesses in Mexico, from landscaping and irrigation companies to tortilla shops, greenhouses, and fish farms.

Santa Ana resident Jesus Salas, received a grant $5,000 matching grant to start a pharmacy. His father emigrated to the United States and returned to Mexico two years ago. He will stay to run the pharmacy.

"It's an option for immigrants," Salas said. "So now they don't have to come back."

The program also offers grants for community projects. With his hometown club of those immigrants here in Orange County hailing from Olomatlan, Puebla, Salas is leading an effort to bring potable water to their hometown of about 5,000 people.

The program stipulates that the grants must go for family businesses. The goal, Olamendi emphasized, is to get Mexicans living in the U.S. to take the skills they have learned here and use them to build Mexico's economy.

"All the family must be involved," Olamendi said, "so we don't leave any options for the family … to move to the United States."

"I'm looking to develop their own dream," Olamendi said, "in their own land."

Mexicans living in the U.S. sent $24 billion to Mexico in 2007, according to the Inter-American Development Bank. Olamendi says that $1.6 billion was from poblanos. Currently there are an estimated 800,000 poblanosliving in the U.S.

"The economic factor is the one that makes you make the decision to leave your family, to leave your little house behind," Olamendi said.

Olamendi says his economic development plan is becoming a model for the other Mexican states.

"The whole idea is great," Adibi said. "It makes sense. But whether it's really going to make a significant dent that I'm not sure about. The problem for Mexico is not just limited to one province or one area."

In addition to the economic plan, Olamendi has pushed for legislation to crack down on coyotes, who make their living sneak people across the border.

He is also working to establish trauma centers on the U.S.-Mexico border, where Mexicans living in the U.S. would be sent for medical and psychological care. He is also working to establish a bi-national health insurance plan to reduce the cost of medical care for immigrants. No further details on these programs were available as of press time.


The cost of health care for undocumented people has become a lightning rod in the debate over illegal immigration, as uninsured are blamed for driving up the cost of health care by using emergency services.

However, it is impossible to know exactly how many of the uninsured are illegal immigrants – or exactly how much they cost the system.

A 2006 RAND Corporation study found that foreign-born residents, including undocumented immigrants, use less public funding and pay more out-of-pocket costs for health care than native-born residents. In 2000, native-born Americans accounted for 87 percent of the population but 91.5 percent of the $430 billion national health care bill, according to the study.

The state tracks the immigration status of Medi-Cal patients, and spent $1.2 billion caring for undocumented immigrants in 2005, according to the state Department of Health Care Services. In 2005, 52,398 illegal immigrants in Orange County received benefits.

As of February 2007, about 801,000 illegal immigrants were eligible to receive Medi-Cal benefits, making up 12 percent of the state's 6.6 million Medi-Cal eligible patients. Medi-Cal officials count as illegal immigrants people who can provide neither a Social Security number nor immigration papers.

Olamendi has already established a relationship with community colleges in Los Angeles to help immigrants further their education, through English classes, high school completion, and vocational training.

Contact the writer: ecarlyle@ocregister.com or 714.796.7722

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/olam ... xican-care