For two decades a human rights crisis has unfolded along the U.S.-Mexico border without outright indignation from the general public, much less from public officials responsible for public policy. Thousands perish in their attempts to cross into the United States, many of whom remain unknown because their remains are unrecognizable. Human rights advocates began tracking the deaths in October of 1994, when the United States implemented a series of operations intended to push the migrant flow from urban areas to rural areas, where the harsh terrain would serve as a natural deterrent.
In California, Operation Gatekeeper came at the time when free-trade policies, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), reconfigured local economies and integrated the national economies of Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Intended to “harmonize” the nations’ economies, twenty years later millions of Mexicans have been pushed by NAFTA to make the dangerous journey across the border into the U.S. The U.S. government has responded by turning the border into a militarized zone, jailing hundreds of thousands of people, and deporting record numbers back across the border.
According to NAFTA’s backers, the agreement was supposed to promote prosperity and actually reduce the pressure to migrate. A 2008 report on NAFTA’s Promise and Reality from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, concluded that while half a million manufacturing jobs were created in Mexico from 1994 to 2002, nearly three times as many farm jobs were destroyed. Mexican wages declined during the same period. This formula made migration inevitable.
For many of us, immigration reform has been a top priority for our communities as a way to ease the suffering that immigrants face daily by asserting that immigrants have intrinsic rights. But we should also be tasked with dealing with root causes of migration, working towards ending forced migration and emphasizing sustainable development. Reflecting on twenty years, NAFTA triggered a race-to-the-bottom approach of dealing with civil society –- it required militarization in order to protect corporations profiting from the economic arrangement. The border has long been a laboratory of experimentation for enforcement strategies. As we advocate for humane immigration policies, it is time to embrace a vision that prioritizes demilitarizing our communities, one that stimulates sustainable economies, and that upholds the basic dignity of all in our society.
Pedro Rios is the program coordinator for the US-Mexico Border Program of the American Friends Service Committee’s San Diego office.
For two decades a human rights crisis has unfolded along the U.S.-Mexico border without outright indignation from the general public, much less from public officials responsible for public policy. Thousands perish in their attempts to cross into the United States, many of whom remain unknown because their remains are unrecognizable. Human rights advocates began tracking the deaths in October of 1994, when the United States implemented a series of operations intended to push the migrant flow from urban areas to rural areas, where the harsh terrain would serve as a natural deterrent.
In California, Operation Gatekeeper came at the time when free-trade policies, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), reconfigured local economies and integrated the national economies of Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Intended to “harmonize” the nations’ economies, twenty years later millions of Mexicans have been pushed by NAFTA to make the dangerous journey across the border into the U.S. The U.S. government has responded by turning the border into a militarized zone, jailing hundreds of thousands of people, and deporting record numbers back across the border.
According to NAFTA’s backers, the agreement was supposed to promote prosperity and actually reduce the pressure to migrate. A 2008 report on NAFTA’s Promise and Reality from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, concluded that while half a million manufacturing jobs were created in Mexico from 1994 to 2002, nearly three times as many farm jobs were destroyed. Mexican wages declined during the same period. This formula made migration inevitable.
For many of us, immigration reform has been a top priority for our communities as a way to ease the suffering that immigrants face daily by asserting that immigrants have intrinsic rights. But we should also be tasked with dealing with root causes of migration, working towards ending forced migration and emphasizing sustainable development. Reflecting on twenty years, NAFTA triggered a race-to-the-bottom approach of dealing with civil society –- it required militarization in order to protect corporations profiting from the economic arrangement. The border has long been a laboratory of experimentation for enforcement strategies. As we advocate for humane immigration policies, it is time to embrace a vision that prioritizes demilitarizing our communities, one that stimulates sustainable economies, and that upholds the basic dignity of all in our society.
Pedro Rios is the program coordinator for the US-Mexico Border Program of the American Friends Service Committee’s San Diego office.
