08:19 AM CST on Thursday, January 31, 2008 By LAURENCE ILIFF / The Dallas Morning News liliff@dallasnews.com
MONTERREY, Mexico – The late Mary Kay Ash brought her pink Cadillac down to this industrial city two decades ago and set up a direct sales operation in a country where resellers had to go to a bank first to pay for their products, then pick them up at bus stations.
On Wednesday, Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert toured the Addison-based company's new distribution center, along a modern industrial corridor near Monterrey's international airport, and called it a model for economic cooperation between the "sister cities."
MONICA RUEDA/The Associated Press Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert (center) tours the new Mary Kay plant in Monterrey, Mexico, with Javier Garcia (left), vice president of the unit, and Ben Muro, a D/FW Airport board member. For example, 70 percent of Mary Kay's products sold in Mexico are made at a Dallas plant, and sales here are booming, creating a steady stream of jobs on both sides of the border.
"Those are the sorts of things we are working on, and we would love to have a lot more examples of that," said Mr. Leppert, who mingled with workers packing orders and asked plant officials plenty of questions. "Think of the jobs created in Dallas – distribution jobs, manufacturing jobs, etc. – because of the market in Mexico."
Mr. Leppert and a delegation of city officials and business leaders visited the sleek facility, inaugurated in December, as part of the mayor's first international trade mission, which began Monday in Mexico City.
"One of the reasons we're here is you have a huge market in Mexico and that market has opportunities for business in Dallas," said Mr. Leppert, adding that he wants Mexican companies to invest in North Texas.
Mexican firms, he suggested, could put their headquarters for U.S. operations in Dallas.
Those types of facilities – as with Mary Kay in Monterrey – create local jobs. In addition to its independent sales force, the Addison-based firm has 260 employees in Monterrey at its national distribution center and separate headquarters building.
The new plant
Anne Crews, Mary Kay's vice president of government relations in Dallas, saw the Monterrey plant for the first time Wednesday and said it is much like its sister facility in North Texas.
"It's fabulous," she said.
The $38 million distribution center occupies 144,000 square feet, is twice the size of the one it replaces and sits on a lot where it can expand, officials said.
And if history is any guide, that growth is likely.
The success of the cosmetics giant, company officials in Mexico said, is a result of closely following the values set out by Ms. Ash in her book Miracles Happen.
"The Mexican culture is deeply rooted in the same culture that Mary Kay operates within the company," said Paul Van der Linden, director of Mexico operations.
Rosy Guerra, vice president for marketing, summed up that philosophy as "God first, family second and career third. That has helped us a lot."
All-female force
Many of its all-female sales force are mothers who work in their spare time and appreciate the flexibility and extra income, Ms. Guerra said. And Mary Kay only sells to distributors, whom it calls consultants, who deliver products directly to their customers.
Mary Kay's business record in the Mexican market has been constant despite some real challenges.
Through Mexico's recurrent economic crises of the 1980s and 1990s – and into the Internet age – the company has increased sales every year it has been in Monterrey, Mary Kay officials said.
And over the last five years, sales have jumped 80 percent, Mr. Van der Linden said, making Mexico the fourth-largest market for Mary Kay after the U.S., China and Russia.
With 107 million people, Mexico is far smaller than any of those nations.
Mary Kay Mexico sold about $200 million in cosmetics to its 200,000-strong network of resellers last year. The total retail value of sales to consumers was twice that at $400 million, Mr. Van der Linden said.
Mary Kay is privately held and not required to reveal its financial details.
Mr. Van der Linden said he did not know the total number of Mexican customers, since the company deals directly only with its sales representatives. But he said they must number in the millions since some Mary Kay consultants have as many as 100 regular customers.
And the increased use of the Internet in Mexico makes the future promising, he said.
Mary Kay representatives now place 90 percent of their orders online, saving them time they can use on sales.
The firm is constantly introducing products, including some exclusive to Mexico, and has a strong promotional campaign, officials said.
"Word-of-mouth is the best publicity," Mr. Van der Linden said.
Mexico's differences
There are some differences between the U.S. and Mexican operations, however.
In the United States, the company cannot legally bar men from becoming sales reps. But in Mexico, it can – and does, said Rebeca Cornejo, director of special events in Monterrey.
But it's not discrimination, Ms. Cornejo said, so much as focusing on the original Mary Kay message of uplifting women .
The climate for women entrepreneurs in Mexico, though, is not so dissimilar from the early days of Mary Kay in the United States, Ms. Cornejo said.
"Men have a lot of opportunities in Mexico, so we don't want to give an opportunity to a man that we can give to a woman," she said.
Mary Kay's female sales representatives come from every walk of Mexican life, Mr. Cornejo said, "from women with a university degree to others who are just learning how to read."
The women make from a few hundred dollars to one who has made more than $1 million in a year.
Overachievers receive prizes from jewelry to pink Cadillacs imported from the United States.
Enforcement-only legislation will not solve illegal immigration
Joe Reyna sltrib.com 02/01/2008 08:19:02 PM MST
Utah elected officials must understand that illegal immigration is not just a domestic policy matter, but an economic phenomenon across borders where people migrate in response to labor market forces. The only way the United States will be able to manage, if not solve, the immigration problem is through cooperation and negotiation with Mexico and other countries.
Mexican politicians often argue that there is no bilateral relationship with the United States unless it pertains to America's territorial security. In today's global economy, cooperation is a must between our two countries.
Although most of the undocumented migrants come from Mexico, millions of people also come from Central and South America, Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa. As Mexican Ambassador Carlos De Icaza once stated, "Illegality is something that happens when immigration is left to market forces instead of regulating it through international cooperation."
We must understand that the American economy is 15 times larger than the Mexican economy. Each year, the American economy requires around 500,000 low-skilled workers, and the government only offers around 5,000 visas. How can this be? There must be a balance between the realities of the market and the security needs of the United States.
America has created a double standard with illegal immigration. On one hand, migration is encouraged by the labor markets; on the other, there is no legal way to meet the market demands, and the states are passing laws punishing the workers. Who are we kidding? We know that our businesses rely on migrant labor, including hotels, restaurants, resorts, offices, construction, transportation, service, farming, manufacturing and housing.
What American politicians have failed to recognize is that immigration is a shared responsibility, and that international cooperation is essential, especially between countries that are neighbors, friends and partners. Why does it have to be so complicated? Congress could give the market and the industries the capacity to manage their labor demands directly with the source of labor supply through the authorized federal channels.
There is no question that our economies have done well in large part because of the North American Free Trade Agreement. However, politicians from both sides forgot to include in NAFTA the human element of trade, which is the movement of labor that corresponds to market forces. Now, we are dealing with a huge problem that our inept Congress does not want to fix, leaving it to the states to find home "remedies."
Immigration issues have a lot to do with the laws of supply and demand of labor. Market forces do not recognize borders. The "invisible hand" does what it must to keep America's economic engine working. If the economy needs workers, it will find workers somewhere, whether they come from Mexico, China, or the Middle East.
Utah is a magnet for workers because of our strong economy. In our state, more than 50 percent of the estimated 60,000 undocumented workers (families) own their own home. If a mere 10,000 of these families own their home at an average of $180,000 price per home, their real estate market value contributes $1.8 billion to our economy, at a minimum. These payrolls translate into hundreds of millions of dollars in property, sales, local and state income taxes.
The Hispanic purchasing power in Utah is over $7 billion. Thousands of Utah businesses depend on Hispanic labor. If they suddenly lose their jobs, or are deported, the negative impact on the state's economy would be in the billions of dollars.
In 2005, for example, undocumented migrant workers contributed more than $7 billion to Social Security that went unclaimed. These contributions would have been useful for the welfare system. I often wonder why we worry about Social Security going bankrupt when we can rely on immigrant workers to help fund the retirement of the baby boomers.
If the United States is serious about facing the competition from Asian economies, we need to increase our ability to compete in the globalized market by strengthening our relationship with Mexico and Latin America. Instead of fences, let there be more bridges. Fences will not deter illegal immigration. Enforcement-only legislation will not solve the dilemma.
We cannot deny this fact: They will keep coming as long as there is a demand for foreign workers.
--- * JOE REYNA, a Utah banker and businessman, is the former chairman of the Utah Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
The life of Estevanico is one of the most fascinating stories of American history. Estevanico was the first non-native person to visit the areas of Arizona and New Mexico. Known as Estevanico the Black or Estevanico the Moor, he was a slave who didn't fit the stereotype of a slave. He was friends with his owner, and he was at times given an great deal of responsibility and independence.
Estevanico was born in Azamor, Morocco. When he was a teenager, during the drought of 1520-21, the Portuguese sold many Moroccans into slavery. Estevanico was sold to Andres de Dorantes, and the two joined an expedition to the lands of Florida. It was to be a tragic expedition: Although they reached Florida in 1528, many on the expedition died of illness, injuries and attacks. Many fled by boat, reaching the Texas coast, where they were enslaved.
By 1534, only four were alive: Estevanico, Dorantes, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca and Alonso del Castillo Maldonado. (The most famous of those is Cabeza de Vaca, whose writings are an important source of information on the Americans of the 16th century.)
The four fled. They lived with another tribe of natives who encouraged them to become medicine men. Apparently, they were quite successful. They were guided throughout much of Texas and northern Mexico. Estevanico was gifted in languages, and he became the explorers' scout and interpreter. He carried an owl-feathered gourd as a medicine rattle that became his trademark.
The four arrived at Mexico City in July 1536. The Mexican viceroy asked them to lead an expedition into Arizona and New Mexico; only Estevanico complied.
The party was under the command of Fray Marcos de Niza, a Franciscan friar. Estevanico went ahead of Marcos, and he had agreed to send back a runner with a small cross if he found a great discovery. When he saw the Zunis (a people of New Mexico), he sent back a cross the size of a man.
Unfortunately, Estevanico met his fate in New Mexico. His owl feathers were a Zuni symbol of death, and the frightened Zunis killed Estevanico. Marcos returned to Mexico City.
Estevanico is not well-known today. But there is one organization, The Estevanico Society, that is researching his life and travels.
_________________________________
Estévanico el moro: esclavo y explorador
En reconocimiento del Mes de Historia Negra
La vida de Estévanico es uno de los cuentos más fascinantes de la historia norteamericana. Estévanico fue la primera persona no indígena que fue a las áreas de Arizona y Nuevo México. Un esclavo conocido como Estévanico el negro o Estévanico el moro, Estévanico no fue el estereotipo de un esclavo. Él y su dueño eran amigos, y Estévanico a veces tenía mucha responsabilidad y independencia.
Estévanico nació en Azamor, Morocco. Cuando era jóven de más o menos 18 años de edad, durante la sequía de 1520-21, los portugués vendieron como esclavos a muchos marroquíes. Se vendió Estévanico a Andrés de Dorantes, y los dos unieron una expedición a la área de Florida. La expedición fue desastrosa.
Aunque llegaron a Florida en 1528, muchos de la expedición murieron de enfermedades, heridas y ataques. Muchos huyeron por barcos y llegaron a la costa de Tejas, donde se exclavizaron. En 1534, sólo vivían cuatro: Estévanico, Dorantes, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca y Alonso del Castillo Maldonado. (El más famoso es Cabeza de Vaca, cuyos escritos son un fuente importante de información sobre los americanos del siglo 16.)
Otra vez huyeron los cuatro. Vivían con otro tribu de indígenas que los animaron a hacerse curadores. Parece que tenían mucho éxito. Los indígenas los guiaron en muchas partes de Tejas y México del norte. Estévenico era bien dotado de lenguas, y se hizo traductor para los exploradores. También era persona que viajaba y reconocía el terreno delante de los otros. Era conocido por llevar un sonajero medical hecho de una calabaza adornada con plumas de búho.
Los cuatro llegaron a la Ciudad de México en julio de 1536. El virrey mexicano les pidió que condujeran una expedición a Arizona y Nuevo Mexico. Solo Estévanico consintió en ir.
Fray Marcos de Niza, un fraile franciscano, comandó la expedición a la región. Estévanico viajaba en frente de Marcos. Estévanico había dicho que le mandaría un mensajero con una cruz pequeña a Marcos si descubriera algo magnífico. Al ver a los zunis (un pueblo de Nuevo México), le mandó a Marcos una cruz con tamaño de un hombre.
Por desdicha, Estévanico encontró la muerte en Nuevo México. Sus plumas de búho eran símbolo de muerte a los zunis, y los zunis espantados mataron a Estévanico. Marcos regresó a la Ciudad de México.
Hoy día, Estévanico no es bien conocido. Pero hay una organización, The Estevanico Society, que investiga su vida y viajes.
Este artículo se escribió para el Mes de Historia Negra, que ocurre cada febrero.
FENCES (BIG ONES) MAKE GOOD NEIGHBORS. Mexico's cartels now targeting judges
Cox News Service Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.02.2008
MEXICO CITY — Judges have become the latest target of Mexico's drug violence, a sign that warring drug cartels are escalating their attacks on the Mexican government, analysts warn.
The northern Mexican city of Monterrey is reeling from last week's execution of a state judge who had handled cases against several dangerous drug traffickers, and death threats against at least three fellow judges. Three days earlier, a municipal judge in the state of Sinaloa was found tortured and executed.
The violence has sparked worry that Mexico's already weak judicial system could be coming under a Colombia-like onslaught. "Narco-traffickers are working to destroy the rule of law and it's obvious that judges, like police before them, are targets," said Michael Nunez Torres, a legal expert at the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon.
In response, Mexican lawmakers have proposed hiding the identity of judges, similar to what Colombia did during the height of that country's drug violence in the 1980s and '90s, when scores of judges were assassinated.
Jurists under-protected Many experts say that before Mexico takes that drastic step, which has been criticized by the United Nations and human rights organizations, Mexico needs to beef up security for its woefully under-protected jurists. Some analysts have proposed including protection of judges in wide-ranging judicial reform legislation expected to be debated by Congress this spring. "The protection for (judges) is very haphazard instead of being systematic," said Mexico City security analyst Ana Maria Salazar. "They all need bulletproof cars, work places that are safe from bombs and other attacks … and ways to get out of the country quickly and easily if they do come under threats."
In the aftermath of the execution and threats, judges in the state of Nuevo Leon, home to the country's third-largest city, Monterrey, have been granted 24-hour protection. Officials would not say what the protection consists of or which judges would receive it.
Judges in Mexico have been relatively immune from violence, especially compared to their Colombian counterparts, which some attribute to the cartels' traditional preference to bribe rather than assassinate magistrates.
The attacks against Mexican judges follow a steady progression of violence against government officials that began with the executions of police, prosecutors and politicians.
Scores have been killed in recent years and hit men have begun targeting specific officers and agents involved in large drug busts or arrests.
The government of President Felipe Calderón has embarked on an unprecedented offensive against the dueling Gulf and Sinaloa cartels, sending tens of thousands of soldiers and federal agents to challenge traffickers, mostly along the U.S. border.
Play hangman and discover new words. Learning this way is much more effective than simply looking up words in a dictionary or filling in the gaps of boring exercises.
Hangman - El Ahorcado:
Topics - Temas: Birds - Aves The Weather - Clima The Car - Coche Colours - Colores The Body - Cuerpo Sports - Deportes The Family - Familia Flowers - Flores Furniture - Muebles Nationalities - Nacionalidades Countries - Paises
Chose a language: English Spanish French German Italian
El ahorcado Hangman for Spanish Students
Are you looking for a fun way to learn new words in Spanish? If so, try playing hangman games, known in Spanish as el ahorcado. (Incidentally, the name of the game in Spanish refers to the person hanged rather to the executioner.)
Dallas lawyer addresses the Catholic position on immigration
Dallas, Feb 2, 2008 / 01:22 pm (CNA).
With an estimated 12 million illegal aliens in the United States, immigration is an unavoidable issue in the upcoming 2008 presidential election. Paul Hunker, a Dallas immigration lawyer with 15 years of experience in the area has written a summary of the Catholic Church’s teachings on immigration policy.
In his synopsis, Hunker examines papal documents, the Catechism of the Catholic Church and also Catholic social doctrine to support his findings on the dignity of human persons and the importance of welcoming the foreigner; balanced with the common good of society in regards to immigration.
Columns: Political Punch
First Principles of Immigration By Paul B Hunker III *
“Romney Targets Rudy on Immigration,” “Edwards’ Immigration Stance Muddled,” Hillary Uses Flak Over Immigrant Issue as Rallying Cry” – these recent headlines show that immigration is a hot issue in the United States 2008 Presidential election. The estimated 12 million illegal aliens in the U.S. and the hundreds of thousands illegally entering each year have made the issue acute.
Initiatives aimed at reforming our immigration law, including legalizing millions of illegal aliens and expanding the availability of temporary work visas, have been zealously promoted by the White House but zealously rejected in Congress. Passions runs deep on both sides of the issue.
Where do you begin in considering this complex issue? What are the first principles of immigration law and policy? One source of such principles is the social teaching of the Catholic Church. The social teaching provides principles derived from a considered reflection on the Gospel applied to immigration. But the relevant principles of such teachings also make moral and common sense.
Perhaps the broadest first principles of immigration are the following: Nations are “obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin.”[1] Nations, “for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions.”[2]
A nation has a duty to welcome the foreigner in search of security and livelihood. Why is that? One must consider it from the perspective of the immigrant. A person has a right to emigrate from his own country when conditions in such country do not provide what is necessary for basic human dignity.[3] The “right” to immigrate can be considered a specification of the “universal destination of human goods,” a principle of social justice. “God destined the earth and all it contains for all men and all peoples so that all created things would be shared fairly by all mankind under the guidance of justice tempered by charity.”[4] Specifically, a person without the necessities of life for himself and his family in his own country has the right to seek those goods elsewhere.
Well, does this mean the borders are open? Does policing the border and removing aliens who jump the border violate social justice? Happily (in particular for those tasked with protecting the border), they do not. Immigration can and should be regulated according to the common good of each nation. The common good indicates “the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily.”[5] Each human community possesses a common good which permits it to be recognized as such; it is in the political community that its most complete realization is found. It is the role of the state to defend and promote the common good of civil society, its citizens, and intermediate bodies.”[6]
From this it is evident that the United States (and any country) can regulate immigration and protect its borders. This makes common sense. The United States has a particular obligation to care for its own citizens, now near 303 million persons.[7] Professor Mary Ann Glendon, recently nominated by President Bush to be the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, stated that “the nation-state, for all of its weaknesses, allows great numbers of peoples to live together in peace and freedom, with space allowed for the exercise of virtues which promote the common good.” [8] An unrestricted influx of immigrants into the United States would greatly impede civil peace and well-being. Immigration should be restricted keeping the common good of the United States in mind.
One element of the common good of the United States is the “rule of law.” The common good of our society thrives in part since people know that the laws are respected and enforced. Does it not hurt rule of law when aliens who illegally enter and reside in the U.S. are rewarded with amnesty and granted legal residence? This is relevant question to ask. But to the extent one concludes that the immigration laws of the U.S. should be reformed to more adequately promote a just immigration policy, such reform could include respect for the rule of law. For example, the failed immigration reform bill proposed by President Bush included provisions whereby illegal aliens would have to pay fines due to their illegal presence in the U.S, and/or return to their native country and then immigrate to the U.S. legally.
Nevertheless, the obligation of the United States is not limited simply to its own particular common good. “Human interdependence is increasing and gradually spreading throughout the world. The unity of the human family, embracing people who enjoy equal natural dignity, implies a universal common good.”[9] For that reason, the United States immigration policy must also be concerned with what promotes the social conditions of all persons, even if they are not U.S citizens. Moreover, there is greater interdependence between the United States and certain countries, such as Mexico, given that we share a common border which brings with it greater social and economic ties.
Certainly, the United States’ facilitating the admission of hard-working law-abiding immigrants, whose life in their own countries has little human dignity, promotes their social condition. When I drive through the security gates to fly out of Dallas Ft. Worth International Airport, it is often a person of Somali or Ethiopian descent who cheerfully hands me my parking receipt. Their cheerfulness strikes me. I wonder if their joy comes in part from appreciating their life in the U.S, compared to the horrors from which they fled.
However, concern for the dignity of non-United States citizen is not simply a matter between the United States and the immigrant. “Migration today is practically an expression of the violation of the primary human right to live in one’s own country.”[10] The point here is that people have the right to live in their own culture without having to flee because of persecution or poverty. (One need only watch a film such as El Norte to appreciate the truth of this statement.[11]) Foreign policy and immigration policy must keep in mind what promotes the economic and social development of foreign nations and the rights of persons to reside in their own nation and culture with human dignity.
A closely related principle to the principle of the universal common good is that of solidarity. This is a broad term; among other things, the principle recognizes “the bond of interdependence between individuals and peoples,”[12] and a desire for “the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all.”[13] The principle is implicit in one of the more striking biblical exhortations regarding the alien – “The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt…”[14] A nation that does not seek to help people in nations less fortunate than itself does not recognize the common aspirations that all men have to further their own development and that of their families.
Finally, a key principle of immigration is family reunification. If someone can legally reside in the United States, his immediate family should be able to reside with him.[15] “The family is a divine institution that stands at the foundation of life of the human person as the prototype of every social order.”[16]
The principles set forth above provide a starting point to consider just and effective immigration law and policies. It is in the nature of principles that they are fairly straightforward and abstract. Applying them is more challenging, in particular given the complexity of immigration and the variety of potential immigrants. But understanding the first principles must come first.
[1] Catechism of the Catholic Church, #2241
[2] Catechism of the Catholic Church, #2241
[3] See Pope John XXIII, Pacem in Terris, paragraphs 25, 105. Under a subsection entitled “The Right to Immigrate,” the Pope states that “when there are just reasons in favor of it, [a person] must be permitted to emigrate to other countries and take up residence there.” (paragraph 25). He does not describe what is “just reason.” However, in 1969, the Holy See stated that “where a State which suffers from poverty combined with great population cannot supply such use of goods to its inhabitants, or where the State places conditions which offend human dignity, people possess a right to emigrate, to select a new home in foreign lands, and to seek conditions of life worthy of man.” Instruction on the Pastoral Care of People Who Migrate, (1969), quoted in Terry Coonan, There are no Strangers Among Us: Catholic Social Teachings and U.S. Immigration Law, 40 Catholic Lawyer 105, n. 62 (2000).
[4] Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church, #171
[12] Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church, #192
[13] Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church #193
[14] Leviticus 19:33.
[15] See Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church, #298 (“The right of reuniting families should be respected and promoted.”); Charter on the Rights of Families, art. 12. (“Emigrant workers have the right to see their family united as soon as possible.”); Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI for the 93rd World Day of Migrants and Refugees (2007) (“If the immigrant family is not ensured of a real possibility of inclusion and participation, it is difficult to expect its harmonious development.”).
[16] Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church, # 211
*
Paul Hunker practices immigration law in Dallas, Texas. He graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 1992.
A grocery clerk queries a customer, “Are you legally in the country, or illegal?”
The customer is stunned by the candor, but replies cautiously, “illegal.”
“OK, no taxes will be charged to you,” the clerk replies. “Just pay the retail price for your groceries, nothing more.”
This never happens. Everyone pays taxes on their purchases. Yet to hear some people talk, immigrants, especially the illegal ones, pay no taxes.
In reality, they do pay into the tax system in a variety of ways, at times providing the rest of us a little acknowledged cushion. Sales tax is just one way. Property tax paid through a rent fee is another.
Depending on the circumstances, illegal immigrants can both cost and contribute to the economy. Taxes are a good way to understand how this is true.
Some illegal immigrants have been busy scrambling lately like U.S.-born Americans, trying to file their taxes on time. This is a small percentage of the without-papers-crowd in the United States. But some do file in the hope of creating a paper trail to show they are willing to pay their share.
That is the immigrant hope for an amnesty. It is fruitless, as no such thing is in the works. A bigger undervalued amount they contribute is through false Social Security numbers.
People who are upset that illegal immigrants can easily buy fake Social Security numbers have a reasonable argument to fear identity theft, confusion with valid numbers. But realize this as well: The government does not care if the money is coming from a fake number or a valid Social Security number. The government gets its paycheck deduction either way.
By some recent government estimates; about $7 billion a year in Social Security taxes is gathered this way.
Illegal immigrants were responsible for 10 percent of the government’s surplus in 2004. That is quite a tidy sum. And because they are not legally authorized to be a part of the workforce, the immigrants will not collect any benefits later, not that they are, or should be complaining.
The Social Security Administration tried to get a handle on the situation by alerting employers if their employees had numbers that didn’t coordinate with government records. The effort caused people to switch jobs, or to be fired by understandably nervous employers.
The notices did not, however, affect the amount of money the government collected. That number keeps rising, along with the number of illegal people.
Other federal efforts to curb hiring of people not authorized to work increased the amount the immigrants paid to the government. The crackdowns encouraged employers to require Social Security cards on all workers, increasing the market for fake numbers.
Deciphering whether the people pay in enough to cover their costs is complicated. First, estimates about the numbers of illegal people are just that — estimates. No one knows the real number. Depending on who is doing the guessing, 8 million to 12 million people is a common range.
Now factor in the economic value of their work, taxes paid on goods, in property tax as rent, emergency medical care costs, public schooling if they have children. Shake that through formulas for property values, federal funding, the economic cost or benefit locally of their workplaces.
Confused? Here is another scenario.
Picture the same clerk, same grocery, same question.
But this time, the person answers, “I’m a legal, U.S.-born citizen.”
“For you, there is no tax,” the clerk replies.
“Why?” the customer suspiciously asks.
Well, a group of illegal immigrants just came through here, buying several carts full of groceries. They paid a big sales tax.
But the people were only passing through, heading for jobs in another state. They won’t be in the area long enough to benefit from the local tax base they just supported.
“It’s OK,” the clerk coaxes. “You don’t have to tell anyone. But this time, you can have this tax-free, courtesy of the immigrants.”
This message has been edited. Last edited by: explora,
Q. HOW DO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS CONTRIBUTE TO THE U.S.? MALAYSIA AS AN EXAMPLE
A. The idea to answering that question is in Economics. Actually, the important concept is not about illegal immigrants contributing to the US, it's about how illegal immigrants from another country can contribute to any country. For example, illegal immigrants can contribute to US, and in another country like Malaysia, illegal immigrants can also contribute to that country. For this answer however, I shall refrain myself from using the word 'illegal', and just describe them as immigrants.
Since I am not very familiar with the US industry, I shall use the example of Malaysia. In Malaysia, most immigrants are working in construction industries, some of them are working as maids, and also other areas of industry in which the pay is lower. Immigrants can contribute to the economy, as it is cheaper to hire them, then to employ our own people living in Malaysia. For example, many immigrants come to Malaysia to work as a maid. It's impossible to hire another Malaysian to work as a maid. They will never work in this area, as the pay is too low.
Apart from that, Malaysians are better off doing something else, as the low pay doesn't match the skills they have. This means that if they
do take the job, there is a mismatch between skills and pay. For example, a doctor will never work as a maid, or an engineer will never work as a waiter. On the other hand, for the immigrants, they are satisfied with the low pay, and also sometimes poor working environement or poor treatment, as to compare with what they can get back in their country, the low pay or poor working environment is nothing. Hence, immigrants will normally fill in the employment positions in a country in which they have comparative advantage in. While the countries own citizen will need to move up the career ladder or industry ladder to focus on other industries.
Hence, immigrants help any country to fill in positions, which is too costly to hire the locals and also in industries where these immigrants have advantage in doing it. The economy can benefit from these immigrants a lot. In Malaysia for example, immigrants are mainly involved in constructions. Hence many building and roads are built with their involvement in it. However there can be some difficulties with immigrants in a country, in Malaysia for example, crime rates are often associated with immigrants coming in illegally. While in US, immigrants are often associated with the idea that they are robbing jobs from the locals.
The important thing to understand is that, it's not immigrants that are robbing the job, it's just cheaper to hire them. In business who wouldn't hire someone with a lower pay right ? Anyone should be aware that workers that can perform the same job, with a lower cost will definitely have more chance to be hired in these global and free market. Hope this helps. (cheong@bgymail.gd.cn)
[BOOK REVIEW] 'Paper Families' shines light on US immigration policy
Estelle Lau takes a balanced look at the US Exclusion Laws of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and at the lives of Chinese nationals who got around them
By BRADLEY WINTERTON CONTRIBUTING REPORTER taipeitimes.com Sunday, Feb 03, 2008, Page 18
PAPER FAMILIES By Estelle T. Lau 214 pages Duke
From 1882 to 1943 people perceived as being of Chinese origin were barred from immigration into the US under what have become known collectively as the Chinese Exclusion Laws. It remains the only exclusion based on race, rather than nationality, the US has ever enacted.
Even after 1943 it was all but impossible, at least on paper, for them to get in - a quota system established 105 as the total number of Chinese immigrants permitted, and even that minute number was not taken up, so stringent was the small print. Only in the mid-1960s, in the wake of a Civil Rights movement highlighting racially motivated discrimination generally, was the ban finally lifted.
Many continued to arrive after the ban, however, and many of them entered the country successfully. The way this was done was through a section in the laws that allowed entry to the children of US residents. Chinese who were already citizens therefore filed details with the authorities of children who had been born to them in China, but who in fact never existed, and then sold these "slots" to prospective immigrants via their agents.
The problem for the authorities was that in those pre-DNA test times there was no way of establishing for certain who these people waiting on San Francisco's wharves actually were. Were they really the children of US citizens they claimed to be? The only way to check, or attempt to check, was to question them at length on the families they said they belonged to, the villages they'd supposedly come from, and even the number of pigs the man living in the second house along in the third row of houses from the north possessed. Long accounts of these extremely detailed interviews still survive, together with "crib sheets" describing a huge range of just such information that the US residents provided along with their "slots." A study of these forms the basis of this book.
The focus of Chinese arrivals was California, where large numbers had arrived in the wake of the 1849 Gold Rush, both to pan for gold themselves and to work on the railroads. Even then state legislation was enacted against them - there was a tax specifically on Chinese gold miners, their queues were forcibly cut off, and they were denied the right to testify in court (which meant that the numerous assaults on them couldn't be prosecuted).
Yet even at its height before 1882, Chinese immigration had accounted for under 5 percent of all arrivals in the US. So what were the reasons for the discrimination? One was that the Chinese were willing to work for lower rates than their counterparts and so were seen as undermining wage structures. Another was that they appeared clannish and unwilling to assimilate - a strange view for San Francisco in the mid-19th century where polyglot adventurers from every part of the globe were congregated. On a more mythic level, their numbers were perceived as being virtually unlimited, and China was thought of as a fountain of would-be immigrants that nothing could exhaust.
But at root lay the ancient desire for a scapegoat. With so much tension in the air, and so much poverty for the majority (though riches for the lucky few), some group had to be found to blame for the many disappointments. In Europe in the 1930s this unhappy lot fell on the Jews. In California in the second half of the 19th century it was the Chinese.
You might think that deception of the authorities in order to obtain immigration rights might be viewed as a shameful history. Not by this author. Estelle Lau - an attorney whose parents came to the US in the 1950s when the exclusion laws had been relaxed, though not abolished - sees the Chinese immigrants of old as heroic individuals struggling against unjust laws put in place by a racially motivated state.
Yet she can be remarkably even-handed. Of the hard-pressed authorities she writes, "It is not surprising that the immigration regulators did not trust the Chinese - they were not paranoid, they just saw what was going on."
Today there are some 1,600,000 people of Chinese extraction living in the US, of whom nearly half were foreign-born. Asians as a whole account for less than one percent of the population but, following their economic success, are widely perceived as being "model minorities."
Would-be migrants from China are still trying to enter the US illegally, though they rank only 21st in the list according to country of origin. The wreck off New York City of the Golden Venture in 1993, with 260 migrants from China on board, many of whom drowned when trying to swim to shore, brought the problem before the public gaze once again. But with today's price for being smuggled into the country estimated at US$30,000, even those who succeed have to work for many years, usually in restaurants or the garment industry, to pay off their debt.
For their part, descendents of former Exclusion Laws-dodgers are still coming to terms with their history. Some have reverted to their original family names, but many have opted to remain with their adopted ones, even continuing to act as members of their paper families. For decades the pretense of consanguinity had to be kept up to deceive the ever-vigilant immigration authorities. "The fictions they created for immigration purposes," writes Lau, "became part of the lived reality of Chinese life in the United States."
It's the author's balance and lack of special pleading that makes Paper Families a sane and therefore agreeable book. There's even, surely, a wry joke concealed in her title. Mao Zed.ong (毛澤東) may have considered Western imperialists to be "paper tigers," but many American-Chinese were actually themselves members of "paper families." Perhaps Mao himself knew this. On balance it seems not unlikely.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: explora,
Civil rights group decries tenor of immigration debate
They take issue with words such as 'invaders,' 'swarms'
By JENNIFER A. DLOUHY Copyright 2008 Hearst News Service Feb. 2, 2008, 11:06PM
WASHINGTON — The nation's largest Hispanic civil rights group has launched an offensive against what its leader called "open and ugly" anti-immigrant "hate speech" by political candidates and commentators on cable news channels.
Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza, said anti-immigration activists have inflamed the debate over the hot-button social issue by describing illegal immigrants as "swarms" of "invaders" who want to take over the U.S.
"Their rhetoric has been adopted by the mainstream media ... and too often welcomed by ... the presidential candidates," Murguia said Thursday. "We can't have that kind of language go unchecked and unfiltered any longer."
Wed site launched
La Raza, which boasts a network of nearly 300 community-based organizations in 41 states, launched a Web site, http:// www.wecanstopthehate.org, to document what Murguia said were the most inflammatory comments by TV commentators such as CNN's Lou Dobbs and anti-immigration advocates such as Jim Gilchrest of the Minuteman Project.
The organization also called on the heads of CNN, the Fox News Channel and MSNBC to tone down the rhetoric of its commentators and stop allowing appearances by some immigration foes.
Murguia said La Raza wanted executives at Fox, CNN and MSNBC "to take the hate and vigilante groups off the air." And, she asked for political candidates to pledge "to renounce hate speech and sever their ties with ... hate groups."
In particular, Murguia singled out:
• CNN's Lou Dobbs, who she said "routinely provides a platform for vilifying immigrants on his 'Broken Borders' segment," a regular feature on Dobbs' nightly broadcast. • MSNBC commentator Pat Buchanan, who has written a book denouncing illegal immigration. • Radio and TV personality Glenn Beck, who once described on-air a fake ad created by a listener about fuel made from the bodies of illegal Mexican immigrants.
Endorsement challenged
The National Council of La Raza also asked for Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee to renounce an endorsement from Gilchrest, the Minuteman Project co-founder who proudly describes himself as a vigilante.
Calls to CNN's public relations department were not returned.
Dobbs has previously said on his show that he is trying to engage citizens in public discourse over an important topic — border security.
Dobbs relishes pointed on-air debate with immigration advocates, lecturing them on his s
Add to del.icio.us
The northern Mexican city of Monterrey is reeling from last week's execution of a state judge who had handled cases against several dangerous drug traffickers, and death threats against at least three fellow judges. Three days earlier, a municipal judge in the state of Sinaloa was found tortured and executed. 
The government does not care if the money is coming from a fake number or a valid Social Security number.