State lawmaker wants Arizona to run a foreign worker program
By Howard Fischer Capitol Media Services Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.07.2008
PHOENIX -- Unwilling to wait for a federal fix, some Southern Arizona lawmakers want the state to run its temporary foreign worker program.
The proposal crafted by Sen. Marsha Arzberger, D-Willcox, would let companies which are suffering a "labor shortage'' to seek permission from the state Industrial Commission to bring in their own workers from *Mexico*.
It even would have the state provide identification cards to the foreigners given permission to work here.
"The federal government has not met the responsibility to come up with comprehensive immigration reform,'' she said.
"Our economy is hurting,'' Arzberger continued. And she said many firms have found themselves without the workers they need.
SB 1482 has drawn a number of cosponsors, including many of the legislators who represent the border area. And even Senate President Tim Bee, who did not sign on as a sponsor, said he supports the concept of a legal guest worker program.
Mexican president Felipe Calderón's U.S. visit could highlight illegal-immigration debate
President's effort to reach out to Mexicans abroad risks U.S. political impact
12:00 AM CST on Saturday, February 9, 2008 By ALFREDO CORCHADO / The Dallas Morning News acorchado@dallasnews.com
WASHINGTON – Mexican President Felipe Calderón will arrive Sunday for his first U.S. visit since he was elected in 2006. Longtime observers question his timing, saying his presence during the U.S. presidential campaign may turn up the heat in the debate over illegal immigration.
Officially, the five-day trip is billed as an "encounter" with Mr. Calderón's compatriots abroad, according to a statement from the president's office to the Mexican Congress. But the visit could backfire, experts say, by putting the focus back on the hot-potato issue of Mexican migration.
"What Calderón wants to do is legitimate, no question about that, reach out to the Mexican community, which has long been under siege," said Eric Olson, formerly of the Organization of American States and a longtime political observer of Mexico.
"But politically, if they're not careful it could become part of the debate in this election here.
"Someone like John McCain, who's normally very supportive, might be forced to be careful to distance himself from Mexico, if the anti-immigrant, ultraconservatives view this visit as negative," he added. "So this is very delicate time and they need to be careful about how they manage it."
A spokesman at the Mexican Embassy declined to comment on the timing of the trip.
Nonetheless, other officials stressed that the president's visit will serve two objectives. The trip allows him to "reach out to Mexican communities in the United States, which he hasn't been able to do in his first year in office, and support them, and tell them they're not alone," said one official speaking on the condition of anonymity. And it will help him to "strengthen the relationship with the U.S. private sector" as he tries to bring more investment to Mexico, the official added.
Mr. Calderón, other officials say, is also trying to reshape the immigration debate in the United States by showcasing the "hard work" and "economic benefits" that his compatriots represent to the U.S. economy and economic integration of the two countries.
"Timing is everything, and the timing of President Calderón's trip speaks volumes – following Super Tuesday and on the eve of the remaining primaries," said Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, president of Peschard & Associates, an independent consulting firm. "He clearly will capitalize on the timing, plus some of his politically oriented meetings, to make sure he puts Mexico on the next president's desk and even try to shape the bilateral agenda."
Not speaking out
Some congressional leaders declined to comment publicly on Mr. Calderón's trip.
But at least one member of Congress, speaking on condition of anonymity, had this to say: "This isn't exactly the best of times," pointing to such issues as illegal immigration, the border fence and the ongoing debate in Congress on whether to approve a $1.4 billion anti-drug aid package to help Mexico confront its widening violence in Mexico.
Andrew Selee, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Mexico Institute, added, "I don't think he will focus on the Merida Initiative. I think he wants to put Mexico on the map more generally in the United States."
Traditionally, Mexican presidents visit the U.S. in their first year in office.
But since taking office in Dec. 1, 2006, Mr. Calderón has instead visited other countries in Central and South America and Europe. Although he's met with President Bush on a number of occasions, Mr. Calderón has yet to set foot on U.S. soil.
Aside from his five-day U.S. visit, Mr. Calderón is scheduled to return to the United States April 20-21 and meet with Mr. Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in New Orleans for the annual North American Leaders Summit.
Invitation extended
Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert is awaiting a response to his invitation to Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa to hold the biannual meeting of the Institute for Mexicans Abroad April 23-25 in Dallas.
If the foreign ministry accepts the invitation, there's a "good possibility" that Mr. Calderón might also visit Dallas immediately after New Orleans, though such a visit is subject to approval by the Mexican Congress, a senior Mexican official said.
Mr. Calderón's coast-to-coast trip begins Sunday with a tour of the northeast corridor – New York City and Boston – followed by stops in Chicago, Sacramento, Calif., and Los Angeles.
On Monday night, Mr. Calderón will deliver an address at his alma mater, Harvard University. Mr. Calderón, a Mason fellow, completed a Master's of Public Administration at the John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2000.
In New York City, he meets with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. He postponed a trip to the U.N. last September because of massive floods in the Mexican state of Tabasco.
Mr. Calderón is also scheduled to meet with key political allies, such as New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. He will also meet with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a prominent Hispanic leader who endorsed New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Traveling with the Mexican president will be his wife, Margarita Zavala; the governors of Zacatecas, Colima and Guanajuato; as well as Rafael Fernandez de Castro, an expert on international relations.
***CHICAGO — Josué, 14, Juan, 11 and Paloma, 9, live with their grandmother in a small rural town in the state of Guerrero, Mexico. They have not seen their mother, Flor Crisostomo, 28, since she crossed the Arizona desert in June 2000, to find work in the U.S. so she could support them.
Crisostomo was arrested during a 2006 immigration raid at a pallet-making company here. After two years of exhaustive legal appeals, Homeland Security ordered her to return to Mexico by Jan. 28. But she decided to take sanctuary at the Adalberto United Methodist Church on the city’s northwest side.
“I came here seven years ago because NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) made it impossible to feed my children in my hometown and that situation has only gotten worse,” Crisostomo told the World, speaking in Spanish.
She said the Mexican government predicts that with the final reduction of tariffs on corn, beans, sugar and powdered milk under NAFTA policies, as many as a million more out-of-work Mexican farmers will try crossing the deadly U.S.-Mexican border to find work.
“I am not leaving. I am taking a stand of civil disobedience,” Crisostomo said. “I believe with all my heart that the U.S. and Mexico must end the system of exploiting undocumented labor.
“The raids and deportations make undocumented workers live in fear,” she added. “The no-match letters force us into worse jobs. But even a poor job here is better than no job.”
(The Social Security Administration mails no-match letters to employers, stating that an employee’s social security number does not match SSA’s records. Many result from clerical error; they are not cause for firings.)
Crisostomo’s experience illustrates a root problem of the current immigration system. At the same time Homeland Security and anti-immigrant and anti-worker laws make it harder for undocumented workers to survive here, NAFTA’s policies have devastated the rural economies of Mexico, putting family farmers out of work. (see related story on page 4)
Elvira Arellano also stood up for immigrant rights and for her U.S. citizen son. She was in sanctuary at the same church for a year before she was deported back to Mexico last summer. She and Crisostomo are good friends.
“It’s a very important time to fight for immigration reform during election time,” Arellano said, in a phone interview, speaking in spanish from Mexico. She added that people need to go out and vote for change so Congress and the next president can act on immigration reform.
“Flor is a part of my family and is a very important person who was there for me while I was in sanctuary,” said Arellano. “She is a mother who has sacrificed a lot for her children despite all the difficulties. We in Mexico are in solidarity with her, we wish her courage and we are praying for her and all the undocumented workers in the U.S.”
Crisostomo hopes that the U.S. and Mexico will realize one way to fix the broken immigration laws and make the borders safe and secure is to renegotiate NAFTA and other financial agreements that have destroyed local economies.
She said she is fighting for all immigrant families in the U.S. “I will not be a symbol of fear to spread among my people. I hope that adding my grain of sand to the struggle will help to get the U.S. Congress to act now,” she said.
Crisostomo knows that by taking this action there is little chance that she will ever achieve legal status to stay in the U.S.
“I may face time in prison. But when I do return to my children, I will not return, as so many have, empty-handed and unable to provide for them. I will be able to give them the only thing I can pass on to them: My dignity.”
plozano@pww.org
***Amazing this alien had her first child at the age of 14 and then went on to have 2 more knowing that she had no way of caring for them. So what does she do? SHE ABANDONS THEM FOR SEVEN (7) YEARS AND BLAMES AMERICA FOR HAVING LAWS. IN the SEVEN YEARS she's been here she still cannot speak a word of the King's English.
Where's all of that outrage from illegal aliens complaining we are "SEPARATING THEIR FAMILIES? OH WAIT IT'S OK IF THEY ABANDON AND USE THEIR OWN CHILDREN AS POLITICAL PAWNS, OTHERWISE THEY SERVE NO PURPOSE.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Beverly,
Hi again Copy-Cat. Isn't this the same duplication from your other thread?
Aren't there any other places you can post it in addition? Surely you're wanting to advise as many as you can about the link. Go duplicate more, Copy-Cat.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: explora,
The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis. You are free to disseminate this information, but we request that you credit NAFBPO as being the provider.
Norte (Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua) 2/9/08
In Chihuahua City, the state capital, Patricio Patino Arias, the Sub-Secretary for Strategic Intelligence for the "AFI" (Mex. Federal Investigations Agency) & the "Federal Preventive Police", said that 97% of victims of execution which take place in Mexico are related to organized crime. Following an increase this year in the murder of law enforcement officers of various federal, state & local agencies he asserted that these events were linked to drug or weapons trafficking or some other illegal activity linked to some cartel. He added that there were 2,764 executions in Mexico last year. ----------------
El Imparcial (Hermosillo, Sonora) & El Universal (Mexico City) 2/9/08
The execution murder of the four local police officers in Navolato, Sinaloa (noted in yesterday's report) brought to 25 the number of law enforcement personnel who have died in that fashion in the state of Sinaloa in the last 13 months, including the case of the state's chief of investigations of the "Ministerial Police", who was riddled with 60 bullets a year ago in Culiacan. In the equivalent period in the state of Chihuahua, 30 law enforcement officers have been murdered, 16 of them in Ciudad Juarez. -----------------
El Informador (Guadalajara, Jalisco) 2/9/08
Thursday night on the Matamoros-Ciudad Victoria highway, state of Tamaulipas (note: this is just up and across the river from Brownsville, Texas) a Land Rover and a Hummer failed to stop when ordered by Mexican federal agents. A pursuit of about 18 miles began and included some firing from the vehicles being chased. When stopped, the Land Rover (Florida license plate L47BA) was found to be carrying 2 AR15 rifles, 2 pistols, 13 clips, 249 rounds of ammunition, 6 cellular phones and 20,000 Colombian pesos. Two subjects were arrested. A short while later the Hummer was found abandoned, but not empty. Inside: 29 packages of cocaine (size or weight not given), eight "communications radios", 12 grenades, 17 long barrel firearms, 20 handguns, 62 clips and 500 boxes of ammunition of various calibers, or some 25,000 rounds. ------------------
El Porvenir (Monterrey, Nuevo Leon) 2/9/08
Officials of Mexico's "PGR" (their Dep't. of Justice) reported that 4,205 firearms, 706,170 rounds of ammunition and 518 (five hundred eighteen) grenades were confiscated in Mexico last year. The states of Mexico with the highest organized crime activity were said to be Chihuahua, Michoacan, Jalisco, Tamaulipas and Sonora "due to the mobility of the Gulf and Sinaloa cartel members who have tried to find new markets for the consumption of drug." -----------------
Frontera (Tijuana, Baja California) 2/9/08
The Tijuana police payroll system was recently changed. Instead of automatic deposits to a debit card, salaries are now paid by check, which requires all personnel to appear in person to sign for their check. While individuals assigned to special duties (escorts, body guards) or those temporarily handicapped were slow to collect their pay, some 200 checks remain unclaimed, leading officials to believe this new system filter may have detected a good number of "ghost" employees (note: called "aviators" or "parachutists" in local slang). An investigation is under way. -------------------
La Cronica de Hoy (Mexico City) 2/9/08
Tomas Gloria Requena, president of the "Agrarian Youth Vanguard", said that "more than" 350 thousand younger Mexicans fled to the neighboring country" last year and that it is alarming that they have to do so because of the lack of Mexican government support for younger field workers. He pointed out that the larger problem Mexico faces will be after the border fence is completed by the American government: "what are we going to do with all those people that they are going to repatriate and with those others who had thought about going but who won't have that opportunity?" -------------------
El Nuevo Diario (Managua, Nicaragua) 2/9/08
Mexico's Public Security Dep't. reported that 12 men and a woman from Nicaragua, 20 men and 18 women from Honduras, 5 men and 3 women from El Salvador and one woman from Ecuador were all found in an 18-wheeler in the state of Tabasco, Mexico. ------------------
El Pais (Cali, Colombia) 2/9/08
A suitcase which had come from the U.S. arrived at the airport in Cali on a commercial passenger flight. Under the cover of some clothing, officers found 18 packets of one hundred dollar bills. The total haul: $1,060,000. The suitcase was not claimed by anyone. ------------------ -end of report-
IndyStar.com Opinion Letters to the editor February 10, 2008
Immigration bill pros, cons
Immigrants show work ethic that businesses like
Senate Bill 335 is a horrible piece of legislation. It targets Indiana residents and Indiana businesses in a weak attempt to curb illegal immigration to Indiana.
By fining business owners and landlords, Sen. Mike Delph believes immigrants will stop coming to Indiana for work. But why would we want that?
In my experience at restaurants and with private contractors, the Hispanic community (some legal, some questionable) is full of good people who work hard and are just trying to find better opportunities. They are in pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.
I guess that is why supporters of this bill must use very harsh language to describe these people with whom they are obliviously out of touch.
They use adjectives such as "illegal" and nouns such as "alien," when they should be using adjectives such as "hardworking" and nouns such as "neighbor."
The people are already here. Making it harder for them to get jobs is only going to push them further underground. There are many more negative implications this bill could have.
While I watch the housing market tank and the economy slip, I wonder: Who benefits?
In Reversal, Courts Uphold Local Immigration Laws JULIA PRESTON
After groups challenging state and local laws cracking down on illegal immigration won a series of high-profile legal victories last year, the tide has shifted as federal judges recently handed down several equally significant decisions upholding those laws.
On Thursday, a federal judge in Arizona ruled against a lawsuit by construction contractors and immigrant organizations who sought to halt a state law that went into effect on Jan. 1 imposing severe penalties on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. The judge, Neil V. Wake of Federal District Court, methodically rejected all of the contractors’ arguments that the Arizona law invaded legal territory belonging exclusively to the federal government.
On Jan. 31, a federal judge in Missouri, E. Richard Webber, issued a similarly broad and even more forcefully worded decision in favor of an ordinance aimed at employers of illegal immigrants adopted by Valley Park, Mo., a city on the outskirts of St. Louis.
And, in an even more sweeping ruling in December, a judge in Oklahoma, James H. Payne, threw out a lawsuit against a state statute enacted last year requiring state contractors to verify new employees’ immigration status. Judge Payne said the immigrants should not be able to bring their claims to court because they were living in the country in violation of the law.
These rulings were a sharp change of tack from a decision in July by a federal judge in Pennsylvania who struck down ordinances adopted by the City of Hazleton barring local employers from hiring illegal immigrants and local landlords from renting to them. In that case, the judge, James M. Munley of Federal District Court, found that the Hazleton laws not only interfered with federal law, but also violated the due process rights of employers and landlords, and illegal immigrants as well.
Hazleton was the first city to adopt ordinances to combat illegal immigration, laws that the mayor, Louis J. Barletta, said would make it “one of the toughest places in the United States” for illegal immigrants. After the Hazleton decision, many cities and towns that had been considering similar statutes against employers and landlords dropped the effort, fearing legal challenges that they would be likely to lose.
The recent federal decisions will probably give new encouragement to states and towns seeking to drive out illegal immigrants by making it difficult for them to find jobs or places to live.
“These are not equivocal decisions,” said Kris W. Kobach, a law professor at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, who was the lead lawyer in the Valley Park case and assisted in the Arizona case. “Both judges gave sweeping victories to the cities and states involved,” said Mr. Kobach, who was also one of the leading lawyers representing Hazleton.
In another earlier, much-watched case, the City of Escondido, Calif., in December 2006 dropped an anti-illegal immigrant housing ordinance and agreed to pay $90,000 in lawyers’ fees to the landlords and illegal immigrants who brought a lawsuit.
By contrast, in the Valley Park decision, Judge Webber wrote that the residents challenging the statutes had failed to “create a genuine issue of material fact on any of the allegations.” He wrote that the city’s employer ordinance “is not pre-empted by federal law.”
That decision was especially notable because earlier versions of the Valley Park ordinances had been struck down in state court. After the state decision, the city dropped its statutes barring illegal immigrants from renting housing, turning to federal court only to defend its sanctions on employers.
Judge Payne of Oklahoma, ruling Dec. 12 on state laws that took effect in November, went furthest in questioning the rights of illegal immigrants.
“These illegal alien plaintiffs seek nothing more than to use this court as a vehicle for their continued unlawful presence in this country,” he wrote. “To allow these plaintiffs to do so would make this court an ‘abettor of iniquity,’ and this court finds that simply unpalatable.”
In Arizona and Missouri, groups challenging the laws have said they will seek new injunctions or appeal; the Hazleton decision is currently under appeal.
Lawyers fighting the local statutes said these were creating a nationwide checkerboard of conflicting laws, and have generated discrimination against Hispanics who are not illegal immigrants. As of November, 1,562 bills dealing with immigration were introduced in state legislatures in 2007 and 244 became law, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
“What certain states and communities are doing is taking matters into their own hands that should be dealt with on a national level in a consistent manner,” said Ricardo Meza, a lawyer in Chicago for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which brought the Valley Park case. “Where we see the big danger with these laws is that they put a bulls-eye on every Hispanic’s forehead.”
In another earlier, much-watched case, the City of Escondido, Calif., in December 2006 dropped an anti-illegal immigrant housing ordinance and agreed to pay $90,000 in lawyers’ fees to the landlords and illegal immigrants who brought a lawsuit.
capemaycountyherald.com Columns | 3 weeks 5 days ago By Jack Fichter
Fewer and fewer products are being manufactured in America. Now, add to the list Hershey Candy. The company is moving to Mexico. This press release from Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa sums it up:
In another blow to working families in the United States and Canada, the Hershey Company has announced that it will be closing multiple plants, cutting its workforce by 11.5 percent and moving jobs to a new plant in Monterey, Mexico.
This decision is yet another byproduct of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which, from its inception, has done more to erode the U.S. economy than perhaps any single piece of legislation in U.S. history.
Millions of jobs have left our nation for countries like Mexico and China where workers don’t have the rights and protections our workers enjoy in the U.S. Wages are low and employer power is high—a perfect storm in which big business prioritizes profit over worker safety and well-being.
The Hershey Company has always been synonymous with American tradition. A true homegrown success story, Hershey Park and the company facilities have been visited by millions of families that travel to enjoy the theme park and tour the factories.
I wonder what those families would think now if they knew that 900 of the 3,000 workers in the three plants in Hershey, Pa., would soon be without jobs? Or if they knew 575 workers in Oakdale, Calif. will be looking for new employment in January 2008? Will they still feel the same pride in this American company?
This is a company that was built on the backs of hardworking Americans—blue-collar, middle-class men and women who dedicated their lives to Hershey and are now being betrayed for the sake of a few extra dollars at the bottom of a balance sheet.
Over the last 13 years, NAFTA has destroyed the competitive edge American workers had benefited from for decades. Skilled and hardworking Americans find themselves losing out to cheap labor over the border and across the ocean.
Since 2000, corporations have shipped more than 525,000 white-collar jobs overseas, according to the AFL-CIO department of professional employees. Some estimates say up to 14 million middle-class jobs could be exported out of America in the next 10 years.
Accountants, software engineers, even X-ray technicians are losing their jobs as corporations look for low-wage workers in countries such as India and China.
At the same time, 3 million manufacturing jobs have been lost since George W. Bush took office, many of them because corporations have shipped them to countries such as Mexico and China, which is creating a booming manufacturing industry on the backs of its poorly-paid workers.
AFL-CIO notes the jobs being created in the U. S. often are low-wage jobs that don’t offer health coverage or ensure retirement security. Nearly one-quarter of the nation’s workers labor in jobs that generally pay less than the $8.85 hourly wage which our government said it takes to keep a family of four out of poverty. Sixty percent of such workers are women, and many are people of color.
As of 2003, the U.S. imported 96 percent of all the clothing that is purchased and 75 percent of all the toys sold in the U.S. are manufactured in other countries, according to the United Auto Workers union.
All this started when President Bill Clinton signed NAFTA promising “a million jobs in the first five years of its impact,” which never happened. President George H. W. Bush negotiated NAFTA, so unfortunately both Republicans and Democrats who owe their souls to corporate money have supported it.
A complete list of all the corporations that have sent manufacturing to Mexico does not seem to be available on the Web but a short list includes Levis, Wrangler, Black and Decker, Maytag, Black, La-Z-Boy, Honeywell, Phillips, Eastman-Kodak, Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, Pillsbury, Carrier Air Conditioning, Lexmark, Whirlpool, Colgate, Zenith, Canon and Pratt & Whitney.
No matter who occupies the Oval Office next year, these jobs are gone from America.
Americans go to Mexico for a cheaper perfect smile
By Robin Emmott REUTERS 9:07 a.m. February 1, 2008
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – It was fear of the hefty bill as much as fear of the drill that kept American musician Don Clay away from U.S. dental clinics for 30 years.
When a sorely infected tooth eventually drove him to the dentist last month, it was to a clinic in a Mexican border city better known for violent crime and drug cartels.
Shrugging off concerns about hygiene and Mexico's brutal drug war, thousands of Americans are heading to Ciudad Juarez and other Mexican border cities for cheap dental treatment.
“I had to get my teeth fixed. I need a perfect smile to make a successful career in music. Treatment in the United States is so pricey,” said Clay, a Texan trying to get a record deal as a hip-hop artist.
U.S. dental treatment costs up to four times as much as in Mexico, making it tough for uninsured Americans to treat common problems such as abscessed teeth or pay for dentures.
A dental crown in the United States costs upward of $600 per tooth, compared to $190 or less in Mexico.
Aspiring Mexican dentists are moving to border cities in droves and are luring American patients away from ****her flung discount destinations such as Hungary and Thailand.
Americans have long crossed the border for cheap medicines, flu vaccines, eye surgery or specialist doctors, but dentists are now in highest demand.
Dental clinics are on almost every block in central Ciudad Juarez, ranging from dingy dives to clinics that look more like posh hair salons. Getting there involves dodging prostitutes, drug pushers and cowboy-boot sellers.
BARGAIN-HUNTING
“We've gone from a handful of patients when we started 2-1/2 years ago to 150 new patients a month,” said Joe Andel, an American who owns the Rio Dental clinic in Ciudad Juarez with his Mexican dentist wife, Jessica.
Rio Dental, which uses U.S. labs to make its crowns, picks patients up at the airport in El Paso, Texas, across the border and has treated people from as far away as Alaska and Hawaii.
“The Internet makes this possible. It allows patients to find us and research us and shows we can do dental work of equal or superior quality to the United States,” Andel said.
Internet bloggers swap stories and compare notes about Mexican dentists, but it always comes down to money.
Dentistry in the United States has become prohibitively expensive for some patients, with bills that can run to tens of thousands of dollars. Malpractice insurance premiums, operating costs that are much higher than in Mexico and dentists seeking to claw back the rising cost of their tuition all weigh.
Even among Americans who have medical insurance, many find they are not covered for treatment other than the basics, and paying on credit means high interest payments.
“I did $4,000 of dental work in the United States and put it on my credit card. Because of the interest, I only paid off $400 in three years,” said a U.S. teacher from New Mexico getting treatment in Ciudad Juarez who gave his name as Bill.
Cosmetic dentistry, which insurers do not cover and which can be paid in dollars in many Mexican border clinics, is also popular, Ciudad Juarez dentist Luis Garza said.
“If you want a perfect smile, you have to pay for it, and we can do it cheaper, that's all,” he grinned.
Feds Sue Local Landowners For Access to Their Border Property
Feb 08, 2008 Amy Isackson kpbs.org
The U.S. government is suing two landowners in Imperial County for access to their properties along the U.S.-Mexico border. The government wants to survey the land in preparation for building more fencing along the border. KPBS reporter Amy Isackson has the story.
The lawsuits are the first against California landowners.
The government has filed 47 more against people in Arizona and Texas.
Department of Homeland Security officials say there'll be 102 in all, with 20 total in California.
The government wants access to the border properties for about three months.
During that time, they'll send in contractors to survey the terrain in preparation for possibly building more border fencing, roads and structures government officials say will help secure the border.
A federal judge in San Diego ordered the landowner in one case to grant the government access.
The other case is still pending.
The landowner would not speak on the record.
The lawsuits have riled people in Texas and Arizona. Many fear they'll lose property that's been in their families for centuries.
February 5, 2008 BY SARAH A. WEBSTER FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Ford Motor Co.'s future subcompact car for the United States, called Verve, will likely be built in Mexico, the Free Press has learned, adding to that nation's growing automotive industry, particularly for small cars.
Ford officials would not comment on their production plans for the European-engineered Verve, which was well-received at the Detroit auto show in January and is slated to come to market in the United States in 2010.
Two people with knowledge of Ford's production plans said the car is slated to be assembled in Cuautitlan, Mexico.
They did not want to be identified because the automaker has not yet publicly disclosed its decision.
Mexico would make sense, said Haig Stoddard, the manager of North American light-vehicle production forecasting for Global Insight, because movement of auto factories to that low-cost country "is escalating."
"In general, we still see capacity in the U.S. dropping ... and continuing to gradually rise in Mexico," he said.
Despite a new labor contract with the UAW, which lowered the wages of incoming hourly workers by about half, Stoddard and other experts said it still doesn't make sense to build the cheapest and smallest cars in the United States -- at least, not until a substantial number of older UAW workers have been replaced.
While some automotive analysts said the automaker is still considering Brazil as a possible location to build the new subcompact car, others said Mexico is a far more logical location.
"We've not identified where we would build our new subcompact car," said Ford spokesman Said Deep.
"I just don't think they'll make it in Brazil," said Erich Merkle, vice president of auto industry forecasting for the consulting firm IRN Inc. in Grand Rapids. "Mexico really makes the best sense for the subcompact."
That's especially true, Stoddard and Merkle noted, as consumers increasingly turn to smaller, economical cars in the face of higher gas prices. Last month, U.S. sales of subcompact cars increased 40%, while overall passenger cars sales declined by 2%.
But it is going to be difficult to meet that demand with U.S.-made cars, experts say.
Under the new Ford-UAW labor contract, the automaker can pay new workers a starting rate of $14.20 per hour, or about half the salary of outgoing UAW workers. The number of workers paid the lower wage will be limited to about 20% of Ford's UAW workforce. At GM and Chrysler, the lower wage is limited to new workers in noncore jobs.
"You're still going to have lower labor rates in Mexico for several years," Stoddard said. "It makes more sense to build smaller vehicles down there, that don't have large profit margins to begin with."
Merkle agreed.
"It's very difficult to make money on a vehicle like that in the U.S.," he said.
A host of fuel-efficient cars are already built in Mexico or are likely to be built there soon. Stoddard said that, among Detroit automakers:
• Ford: The Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan and Lincoln MKZ are built in Hermosillo.
• Chrysler LLC: The PT Cruiser and 2009 Dodge Journey will be built in Toluca.
• General Motors Corp.: The Chevy HHR, Saturn Vue, and Chevy C2, which is sold outside the United States, are built in Ramos Arizpe.
In June, the Chevy Aveo will also begin production at a new GM plant in San Luis De Potosi. Stoddard said GM will increase production at that new plant from 150,000 cars a year to 400,000.
Aside from Mexico's low wages, the country is a favorable plant location, experts said, because of its proximity to the United States, especially the big auto markets of California and Texas. Ford can also export vehicles easily from Mexico to South America.
And there's already an established and growing supplier community there.
In a 2006 Ford internal document, published by the Free Press, Ford noted these benefits, as well as the willingness of the Mexican government to contribute incentives.
"Mexico is ready," Louise Goeser, president and CEO of Ford of Mexico, wrote. "Mexico is a key partner as we're targeting lower fixed costs."
After the Free Press published that document, Ford disclosed that it was investing in its assembly plants in Cuautitlan and Hermosillo, as well as an engine plant in Chihuahua.
The Cuautitlan plant, which opened in 1964 outside of Mexico City, has two production lines on its 1.2 million square feet. One line currently builds the F-Series and the other built a subcompact car called the Ikon until September.
But the automaker has never said what it would build in place of the Ikon. That line could easily be retooled to build the Verve, experts said.
Some experts suspect Ford would need more than one production line to satisfy global demand for the Verve. Merkle said the automaker might choose to build the car in both Mexico and Brazil.
Making the right decision about where to build the Verve could be important for Ford's future financial performance.
Ford reported a net loss of $2.7 billion for last year, compared with a record loss of $12.6 billion in 2006. And the automaker's management team has repeatedly said that Ford must re-establish its credibility in cars.
While Ford's new midsize cars, like the Fusion, have been successful, Ford hasn't sold a subcompact car in the United States since it ended the Ford Aspire after the 1997 model year.
The same factors that are encouraging other automakers to invest in Mexico will likely entice Ford there as well.
Greg Gardner, a Troy-based analyst for Oliver Wyman, a global consulting firm and publisher of the Harbour Report on automotive manufacturing efficiency, said: "You look at what GM is doing with its new plant in San Luis Potosi and it makes sense that Ford would look at upgrading Cuautitlan, especially since they have idle capacity there now."
Contact SARAH A. WEBSTER at 313-222-5394 or swebster@freepress.com.
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Crisostomo was arrested during a 2006 immigration raid at a pallet-making company here. After two years of exhaustive legal appeals, Homeland Security ordered her to return to Mexico by Jan. 28. But she decided to take sanctuary at the Adalberto United Methodist Church on the city’s northwest side. 
“I am not leaving. I am taking a stand of civil disobedience,” Crisostomo said. “I believe with all my heart that the U.S. and Mexico must end the system of exploiting undocumented labor. 
“The raids and deportations make undocumented workers live in fear,” she added. “The no-match letters force us into worse jobs. But even a poor job here is better than no job.” 
Elvira Arellano also stood up for immigrant rights and for her U.S. citizen son. She was in sanctuary at the same church for a year before she was deported back to Mexico last summer. She and Crisostomo are good friends. 
“It’s a very important time to fight for immigration reform during election time,” Arellano said, in a phone interview, speaking in spanish from Mexico. She added that people need to go out and vote for change so Congress and the next president can act on immigration reform. 
On Thursday, a federal judge in Arizona ruled against a lawsuit by construction contractors and immigrant organizations who sought to halt a state law that went into effect on Jan. 1 imposing severe penalties on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. The judge, Neil V. Wake of Federal District Court, methodically rejected all of the contractors’ arguments that the Arizona law invaded legal territory belonging exclusively to the federal government. 
On Jan. 31, a federal judge in Missouri, E. Richard Webber, issued a similarly broad and even more forcefully worded decision in favor of an ordinance aimed at employers of illegal immigrants adopted by Valley Park, Mo., a city on the outskirts of St. Louis. 
And, in an even more sweeping ruling in December, a judge in Oklahoma, James H. Payne, threw out a lawsuit against a state statute enacted last year requiring state contractors to verify new employees’ immigration status. Judge Payne said the immigrants should not be able to bring their claims to court because they were living in the country in violation of the law. 
Hazleton was the first city to adopt ordinances to combat illegal immigration, laws that the mayor, Louis J. Barletta, said would make it “one of the toughest places in the United States” for illegal immigrants. After the Hazleton decision, many cities and towns that had been considering similar statutes against employers and landlords dropped the effort, fearing legal challenges that they would be likely to lose. 
The recent federal decisions will probably give new encouragement to states and towns seeking to drive out illegal immigrants by making it difficult for them to find jobs or places to live. 
Lawyers fighting the local statutes said these were creating a nationwide checkerboard of conflicting laws, and have generated discrimination against Hispanics who are not illegal immigrants. As of November, 1,562 bills dealing with immigration were introduced in state legislatures in 2007 and 244 became law, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. 
Michael A. Olivas, a University of Houston law professor, said the recent litigation showed the need for Congress to clarify the situation of illegal immigrants. “We lost the big enchilada, which was federal immigration reform that would have trumped all these matters,” he said. 
