Nonfiction
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HIDDEN DANGERS
Mexico on the Brink of Disaster Former New York Times bureau chief Alan Riding calls Mexico “our distant neighbor.” Distant or not, the neighbor is undergoing economic and political changes that “lie like landmines ready to explode beneath Uncle Sam’s footsteps,” comments a noted Mexican journalist. These landmines include:
Hidden Dangers delves beneath the surface to describe and analyze these landmines that threaten the economies and social and political well-being of “distant neighbors” whose futures inextricable are joined. Safety Value? Or Danger Point (excerpt)
Agricultural workers who followed the growing seasons from Southern California into Oregon, Washington, and Idaho settled in Southern California, Arizona, and Texas instead of returning to Mexico. As many of them sought—and found—temporary or year-round work, business and industry responded by hiring greater numbers of Spanish-speaking immigrants. The Hispanic communities themselves provided more and more sources of employment as small enterprises fulfilled community demands for services, food, appliances, and clothing. Intermarriage between indocumentados and legal residents was common; young, year-round residents did not want to pull their children in and out of school.
Nevertheless, many teenagers and the children of older—and often legalized—immigrants, unable to find adequate employment or angered by anti-Hispanic prejudices and attitudes, reverted to criminal activities, particularly gang-involved drug sales and drug use. Jammed into city barrios, unable to contend with the demands of schooling in a language—English—that they barely understood and often neglected by parents who were working long hours, they sought recognition—acceptance—from those most willing to recruit and cuatear with them. As the U.S. Border Patrol increased the number of agents and electronic surveillance devices and constructed walls across major immigration paths, the “safety valve” disintegrated. Many immigrants, particularly those from central and southern Mexico, cancelled trips to their home communities during slack times for fear of not being able to return to the United States without being apprehended. Thousands of migrants “disappeared” after they lost their employment or suffered reduced earnings. Others ended contact with those in their home communities because of drug or alcohol addiction or because they connected with new partners and started new families in the United States. Abuses against those trying to cross the border without authorization have been well-documented although the media “slant” has differed from one country to the other. In contrast with propaganda and popular beliefs in both countries, nearly 50 percent of indocumentados entered the United States legally but were living in the country with paperwork that was no longer valid. Although talk show hosts and anti-immigration groups continued to accuse them of coming to the United States in order to become government dependents, legislation passed during the Clinton administration excluded indocumentados from all federal public welfare programs. According to statistics published by the Urban Institute in 2004, 96 percent of male unauthorized immigrants worked full or nearly full-time. Percentages for legal immigrants and for U.S. citizens were considerably lower. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service provided them with individual taxpayer identification numbers so they could file end-of-the-year income tax statements even though federal laws restricted their receiving benefits. Other functions of the U.S. federal government were not so accommodating. While ICE deported apprehended indocumentados within twenty-four hours, many of the 1.8 million children listed as “unauthorized” had legal rights to residency but had waited as long as seven years for the Department of State to approve their applications. During 2006 paramilitaries in Oaxaca killed between twenty-three and twenty-six protesters, including U.S. Indymedia photographer Bradley Will. Pressured by the U.S. government to resolve Will’s slaying Oaxacan authorities arrested one of Will’s companions, ignoring video evidence that showed four gun-wielding paramilitaries charging Will’s barricade seconds before he was shot.
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