Thread: Group putting out immigration ads

Group putting out immigration ads

Web Posted: 06/06/2007 12:58 AM CDT

Hernán Rozemberg
Express-News Immigration Writer

Increased border security, a temporary worker program and other facets of immigration reform being debated in the U.S. Senate may be smart moves, but national leaders need to think bigger — a true solution starts with helping Mexican workers stay or return home.
That's the $2 million message being launched this week by Mexicans and Americans Thinking Together, a San Antonio think tank, in a national ad campaign.


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Think tank's ideas on immigration reform
A San Antonio think tank, Mexicans and Americans Thinking Together, has launched a $2 million ad campaign to push its ideas on immigration reform. Its main theme is to encourage Mexicans to stay in — or return to — their home country to work. Some proposals include:
• Expansion of a micro-loan program for capital-starved Mexican entrepreneurs.

• Creating a 'nest egg' for Mexican workers in the United States that can only be collected upon their return home.

• Empowering the San Antonio-based North American Development Bank to help Mexican businesses create more jobs.


The organization, founded last year by marketing expert Lionel Sosa, plans to expand its existing programs and launch new ones to try to address the root problem driving illegal immigration.

"We're worried about the well-being of both countries," said MATT board chairman Alonso Ancira, who, like many in the group, has dual citizenship and lives and works on both sides of the border.

"A more secure United States means a more secure Mexico, and vice versa. But putting up a wall won't solve the problem," said Ancira, who runs Mexico's largest steel company, which employs 17,000 workers 155 miles south of the Texas border.


Ancira was part of an eight-member MATT delegation in Washington — including San Antonio Archbishop José Gomez — that met with influential senators and high-ranking administration officials, including presidential political adviser Karl Rove and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutiérrez. The group returned Monday.

Their views and recommendations apparently had an impact, noted Ancira, to the point that the envoys were convinced to move up their national ad campaign.

The first 15-second TV spots appeared Tuesday night, and others will air on national networks and news channels such as CNN and FOX. Full-page ads will run in newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal on June 13.

The group's main push is to move Americans away from favoring isolationist policies, at least when it comes to Mexico. It stresses job creation in Mexico and incentives for its workers abroad to return home.

An existing MATT project allows U.S. donors to make small loans online to Mexican entrepreneurs who lack resources. Instead of spending billions of dollars on a border fence, the group says, the money could be used to expand that program and boost the San Antonio-based North American Development Bank into a regional investment powerhouse helping Mexican businesses hire more workers.

A proposed "Mi Futuro Fund" would encourage temporary Mexican workers in the United States to return home to collect set-aside savings — though it could be vulnerable to critics because thousands of workers never were paid when the idea was first promoted during the Bracero Program in the 1950s and 1960s.

Other MATT ideas include expanding ConfiCasa, a Houston-based program that helps Mexicans there build houses in their hometowns; offering a headhunter service that connects workers to U.S. employers under the current visa-based guest worker program; and giving immigrants opportunities to learn English and nuts-and-bolts life skills such as banking and health care.

Archbishop Gomez said the initiatives were warmly received by Washington leaders, who are often accused by border-area civic leaders of being ignorant of the region.

"I have been encouraged by ... the bipartisan interest shown in the ideas presented by MATT," Gomez said. "We pray that the balance between justice and security will be found soon."

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/ ... 42a37.html

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Nice that people who don't have to deal with negative results of their plans get to tell us what to do.