Like the 300 or so homeowners at the Baja developments, many have signed complex leases to get around a Mexican ban on foreign land ownership within 35 miles of the U.S. border or 20 miles of the ocean. Only 1 percent of Americans who buy or lease land in Mexico end up with a title problem, not much more than the U.S. figure, according to Mexican real-estate expert Allyn Hunt, based in Guadalajara. But that's cold comfort to Baja's dispossessed. There they testified that the Mexican government had allowed their employer, Florida's Breed Technologies, to systematically violate the country's health and safety laws, casting workers aside like tissue paper in two border plants - Auto Trim in Matamoros, and Custom Trim in Valle Hermoso. The Clinton administration promised it would protect workers' rights and decent factory conditions.
Critics charge it has failed, dismally.
The warning comes from the International Crime Threat Assessment, a recently released 128- page analysis of criminal activity around the world. It was produced by the CIA, the National Security Council, the FBI and specialists from 10 other U.S. agencies. The agencies' report explains that the tough, sophisticated Chinese gangsters are exploiting Ottawa's comparatively loose immigration policies to enter Canada and become legal residents. As Canadian residents, they can easily enter and leave the United States, where they run major enterprises. Calif. Detective believes father of bay area child is hiding in Mexico Unable to talk or walk, an East Palo Alto boy spent his third Christmas in a local intensive care unit.