Frequently there is silence or only scant attention given to the powerful pressures prompting thousands to take the drastic step of leaving their homelands in search of a new life. It is very important that public opinion be properly informed about the true situation in the migrants' country of origin, about the tragedies involving them and the possible risks of returning. Outside the broad boulevards and elegant homes of Mexico City and Monterey, in many areas surrounding the 2,000 maquiladoras or assembly plants heavily concentrated along the 1,945-mile U.S. border, hundreds of thousands of people live in shacks of discarded materials, without running water and plumbing and with scarce electricity. Hourly wages at the maquiladoras, where jobs are highly attractive for most Mexicans, may be as low as 35 cents an hour. With a declining U.S. birth rate decreasing the number of U.S.-born workforce, immigrants arrive at the peak of work performance, in their 20s and 30s, usually without elderly dependents and with a strong work ethic.
Illegal immigrants pay considerably more in consumer purchases and taxes.
Immigrants with lower wages have been indispensable in the survival of numerous small and medium-sized businesses as well as in generating new ones. We cannot afford to scapegoat immigrants for our own exonomic doldrums, rather than creatively grapple with the complex issues of trade imbalances, flight of businesses, outmoded technologies, crime and the paralyzing deficit, and other ills which have little relation to immigration. While we rightly strive to reform our immigration practice and law, immigrants must not be denied basic health care, social services and educational opportunities. Family reunification must continue to be a priority. Those is desperate exonomic need or danger to life because of political opporession must be afforded impartial consideration by knowledgeable officials, and special federal aid programs must be provided for those areas with high immigrant populations.