Labor & Employment Law

U.S.-Mexico Border Towns Thrive, Despite Bad Immigration Laws

By James Parks

The area along the U.S.-Mexico border is not a lawless line dividing the two countries. Instead, it is a shared region where folks on both sides share an economy, culture, environment and family ties. They also have developed practical ways to address mutual problems in a way that benefits families in both countries.

Policymakers far away in Washington and Mexico City have preconceived and wrong ideas about the border and, as a result have created immigration policies that don’t work, author and journalist Tyche Hendricks, author of  ?The Wind Doesn?t Need a Passport: Stories From The U.S.-Mexico Borderlands,? told a crowd of more than 100 persons last evening at the AFL-CIO.

She says those who say we should put up fences to protect our nation from the drug trade and uncontrolled migration are missing the point. The real issue is that our immigration policies are not working and the people in the border towns are bearing the brunt of our dysfunctional laws.

Crime and drug smuggling exist, she says, but research shows immigrants commit fewer crimes than the rest of us. In fact, she says, the border towns generally have a lower crime rate than other cities.

U.S. support of Mexico?s economic development to help create a better education system is key  immigration reform, Hendricks says. That includes encouraging the establishment of  labor unions to help create a decent wage so people can support themselves and have a voice in the workplace.

If there?s more of a sense of possibility in Mexico, then fewer people will feel they need to leave their homeland to make a ways for themselves and a future for their children

Many of the border areas are models of cooperation, she says. Nearly a million people cross the border daily to visit family and make purchases. The economic activity of those visits is an important factor in the economies of U.S. border cities like San Diego and El Paso. City fire departments, hospitals, police, chambers of commerce and other groups in towns on both sides of the border depend on each other for mutual assistance, she says.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on October 01, 2010 (boomark / email).