Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: George W. goes South

Thursday, Feb. 22, 2001 | 8:56 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.

A FEW CRITICS have smirked when talking about President Bush making his first foray into foreign relations when visiting neighboring Mexico. Millions of Americans view visiting both Mexico and Canada much like visiting Florida or Southern California for a vacation during winter months. These visits are nothing like packing up for a business trip to Europe or Asia.

Bush's choice of meeting with newly elected President Vicente Fox across the border from Texas was a wise decision. The two new presidents know each other as former governors of nearby states and certainly have plenty to discuss. The North American Free Trade Agreement, drugs, immigration problems and the economic future of both nations are very important issues that deserve attention.

Whether the benefits of NAFTA are reaching down to the workers should be looked at in depth by the leaders of both countries. Elizabeth Topping and Ann Strachan, who are researchers at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, recently wrote in USA Today: "Cliches aside, the rich are getting richer, as Mexico now has three times as many billionaires as it did on the eve of NAFTA, while more Mexicans currently live below the poverty line than did in the early 1980s."

Last year writer William M. Adler followed the job that Mollie James of Paterson, N.J., lost to Balbina Duque, who now lives in Matamoros, Mexico. Reporting in Mother Jones magazine, he tells of the continuing poverty and terrible working conditions of Duque across the border from Texas.

When discussing NAFTA, both leaders should be thinking about putting some teeth in the labor and environmental provisions put on the back burner as "side agreements." There is little doubt that trade has been increased, but the workers can show little improvement in wages or quality of life.

We have been told there were discussions about increasing the number of temporary workers allowed to cross the border to work in the United States. This is something that large agricultural corporations have been pushing for and is contained in a bill promoted by Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas. Mexican farm workers labor long, hard hours and for less money than U.S. workers are willing to accept. This is pleasing to the farm owners and consumers, who reap the benefits of cheaper food products.

What should be of great importance is legislation and government action that steps up the enforcement of decent living and working conditions, educational opportunities for migrant worker families and quality health provisions in local communities. No longer should organizations representing farm workers be viewed as the enemy of the growers. In reality, they are sometimes the only friends the migrant workers have to speak up for them in languages everybody can understand. These voices can only be effective if religious, social and governmental agencies are active and have the ability to respond.

Most observers agree that the flood of undocumented workers into the United States won't subside until the opportunity to support families at a decent level is provided in Mexico. NAFTA, after six years, hasn't made a dent in solving this problem. So the poor continue to find their way north where their sweat, strong hands and backs are in demand.

As long as legal migrant workers and undocumented migrants flow into our country, we have the responsibility to treat them as fellow human beings. There's no argument about the benefits migrant workers provide our economy. The government that provides for the increase in migrant workers must make certain that these men and women also receive some of the benefits this growing economy produces. Anything less isn't acceptable in a country that preaches human rights to the world.

I'm pleased that our president and Mexico's leader are looking to solve problems close to home. Let's hope that the welfare of workers on both sides of the border receives the attention it deserves.

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