Immigration Laws: January, 2004 - Number #08

President Bush traveled to Mexico in January 2004 to meet with leaders of 34 Western Hemisphere countries, and many commentators noted that many Latin American nations no longer follow US policies, as illustrated by their opposition to the war in Iraq.

Led by Brazil, Latin American countries have refused to create the Free Trade Area of the Americas, which was to reduce trade and investment barriers from Alaska to Argentina by 2005, largely because of reaching agreement on agricultural subsidies, patent protection and government procurement contracts. Instead, these difficult issues were not resolved and shifted to the World Trade Organization, leading to at best a "FTAA-lite" agreement. US experts say that the driving force for FTAA has been US foreign policy, not US business, which favors more bilateral agreements.

Critics argue that "free trade is a factory producing poor people." The Los Angeles Times summarized the message as: "when populations lose their traditional means of livelihood [because of freer trade], they become a floating army of potential migrants who may end up on US streets." One activist complained that free trade "creates a surplus of workers, it creates poverty, creates crime, creates drug addiction, creates prostitution." The US Trade Representative counters that "Free trade and open markets are among the most powerful tools available to fight poverty."

The US reached a Central American Free Trade Agreement with four countries in December 2003; Costa Rica opted out of the agreement when the US pushed for privatization and competition in telecommunications and insurance.

Human Rights Watch opposed CAFTA, alleging that labor rights would be violated in a rush of new foreign-owned assembly operations. Human Rights Watch said labor rights in El Salvador were already violated systematically in textiles and transport, in part because there are only 37 labor inspectors to protect a work force of 2.6 million.

Remittances. Remittances to Latin America doubled from $10 billion in 1996 to $21 billion in 2001, with Mexico receiving 40 percent of remittances in both years, the Caribbean about 25 percent, and about 16 percent each in South America and Central America.

Brazil. Brazil has a program, Family Grant, that pays up to 11 million poor families up to $24 a month if their children attend school; the total cost of the program is expected to be about $2 billion a year. The idea of paying poor families to bring their children to school rather than put them to work is widespread in Mexico, where 20 million people are covered by Progresa, a similar program providing pay for schooling and health check-ups.

Brazil's stock market boomed in 2003, as newly elected president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva reduced inflation with tight monetary and fiscal policies. But many of his supporters in the governing Workers' Party are disappointed that Lula put economic stability ahead of job creation.

El Salvador. The estimated two million Salvadorans in the United States remit $2 billion a year to El Salvador, the equivalent of 15 percent of the gross domestic product in this country of six million. About 3,000 people a day fly to El Salvador in December, triple the usual arrivals from the United States. El Salvador has 14 departments, or provinces, and the United States is known as the "15th department."

Dominican Republic-Haiti. An estimated 300,000 Dominicans live in Puerto Rico, and more are attempting to cross the Mona Passage to get to Puerto Rico as the Dominican Republic suffers economic uncertainty. The US intercepted 3,477 migrants in the Mona Passage in FY02, and Dominican authorities stopped 1,909 migrants from departing. Smugglers charge Dominicans about $200 to $600 for the passage, often made in yolas built in Puerto Rico. They cross the passage to pick up a hundred or so migrants at a time.

The Dominican economy grew at an average annual rate of 6.5 percent through the late 1990s, but is expected to shrink in 2003 by 3.5 percent. Tourism has surpassed agriculture as the leading employer, and foreign-owned maquiladoras employ many Dominican women. However, there were several large bank failures in 2003, forcing a government bailout that added to the country's foreign debt--foreign debt payments consume 40 percent of the national budget.

Meanwhile, there are 500,000 to a million Haitians in the Dominican Republic, many originally recruited to work on sugar plantations, but now most working nonfarm jobs. There are a total of three million Haitians abroad.

Haiti, which celebrated 200 years of independence in 2003, has been politically paralyzed since disputed legislative elections in 2000, when President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas party manipulated elections in some districts. That led donors to suspend $500 million in aid. Aristide says that Haiti must resist the modern slavery of a world economy dominated by the United States.

The Aristide government devoted a quarter of the $500 million annual government budget for bicentennial celebrations that were celebrated January 1. Aristide is pressing France for $21 billion as reparation for the payment Haiti was forced to make to France when it won its independence. An opposition alliance tried to force Aristide to resign in January 2004 with a new wave of protests - including a two-day nationwide strike.

Jamaica. A new play, "Oliver...Large Abroad," portrays Oliver Samuels, Jamaica's most popular comedian, trying to get a visa for the US. In the play, Samuels marries a US resident for a green card and writes a song praising the US and sings it to the consular officer. A similar play, "Single Entry," tells the story of two Jamaican women who try to get tourist visas to the US, intending to stay.

About half of the 22,000 Jamaicans deported to Jamaica between 1990 and 2002 from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom were convicted of drug-related offences abroad.

Criminals. The US deports criminal aliens, non-US citizens convicted of crimes in the US. Some 500,000 were removed since 1996 after being sentenced to one year or more in prison, including 340,000 to Mexico. After serving sentences in the US, most deportees are put on buses or planes to their countries of origin, and arrive with no friends, jobs or money.

Many soon resume criminal activities, and overwhelm local police in the rural areas from which many migrants come. A US gang expert says that "We're sending back sophisticated criminals to unsophisticated, unindustrialized societies," where they are introducing gang and drug activity on a scale that local authorities have never seen. In El Salvador and Honduras, vigilante squads reportedly kill young men with American gang tattoos.

Guyana's foreign minister complained that the US accepts educated Guyanese and returns criminals:. "You are sending us the dregs of your society and, at the same time, you are poaching our teachers and nurses."

The number of criminals deported in 2003, about 77,000, was more than the total deported between 1905 and 1986. About 40 percent of those deported from the US committed drug-related crimes; no other type of crime reached 10 percent.

Randall Richard, "U.S. Deportees Cart Crime to Native Lands," AP, January 4, 2004. Mary Jordan, "In El Salvador, a Christmas Avalanche," Washington Post, December 21, 2003. John-Thor Dahlburg, "Protesters Tell a Different Tale of Free Trade," Los Angeles Times, November 20, 2003.