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Home > Press Room > 2006 > Press Release
Press Release
National Latino
Leaders Urge Congress to Rethink NAFTA-style
Trade and Economic Policies.
September 11, 2006
Contact: Lizette
Jenness Olmos, LULAC, (202) 365-4553
ljolmos@lulac.org,
www.lulac.org
Alexandra Acosta, LCLAA, (201) 390-7129
Acosta@lclaa.org, www.lclaa.org
LOS ANGELES, CA – Reflecting
on the roots of poverty and immigration in Latin
America, the historic National Latino Congress
has unanimously approved a resolution rejecting
new NAFTA-style trade agreements and calling for
the replacement of the flawed “Fast Track”
legislation that helped to facilitate the
expansion of NAFTA to Central America through
the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA),
which was passed last summer by one vote.
The resolution, which
complicates the Bush administration’s current
efforts to further expand NAFTA to the South
American countries of Peru and Colombia and to
seek an extension for its expiring “Fast Track”
trade negotiating authority, was passed in the
final plenary of the Congress on Saturday,
September 9th. It reads, in part:
“Now therefore be it resolved that
our organizations call on the U.S. Congress and
the Bush administration to immediately cease
their anti-immigrant, failed trade policies that
are continuing to force families to migrate from
their homes in the first place; develop trade
policies that promote the creation of
sustainable development and good jobs in the
United States and abroad by replacing the Fast
Track process and replacing the failed NAFTA-CAFTA
trade agreement model that has proved damaging
to the livelihoods of the majority and the
environment in involved countries while creating
economic and social devastation that promotes
dangerous, desperate cross-border migration.”
The resolution also
specifically calls attention to national
lawmakers who are attempting to push
anti-immigrant legislation ahead of the November
elections while continuing to push for expansion
of trade and economic policies that force
families to immigrate in the first place.
Latino leaders present applauded the passage of
the resolution, calling it an important step
towards addressing the obvious link between
current U.S. trade policy and immigration.
“We live in a service sector economy where the
race to the bottom is a common occurrence and
the scapegoating of a segment of the population
is done in the name of national security.
However, before we begin to criticize those who
have to work two jobs to make basic ends meet
and who were forced to migrate illegally, we
need to take a close look at our failed trade
policies such as NAFTA and CAFTA,” stated Milton
Rosado, National President of the Labor Council
for Latin American Advancement.
“NAFTA caused over 1.3 million Mexican
campesinos to lose their livelihoods. Not
surprisingly, the number of people coming from
Mexico to the United States each year rose 60
percent in the first six years after NAFTA,”
said Dolores Huerta, president of the Dolores
Huerta Foundation and co-founder of the United
Farm Workers. “Passing a border security bill
won’t have any effect on immigration; we can
only resolve immigration issues by addressing
the bigger question of why people are being
forced to immigrate in the first place – because
of U.S. trade policy that makes it impossible
for small farmers to compete with big
agribusiness.”
“El Salvador was the
first country to implement CAFTA, and we are
already seeing an increase of both immigration
to, and deportation from, the United States,”
said Ana Perez, a board-member of the Salvadoran
American National Network (SANN) and delegate at
the National Latino Congreso. “CAFTA is locking
in and deepening the U.S.- backed economic
policies that have been impoverishing
Salvadorans for decades.”
“We are for free trade but it
must contain certain provisions for worker
rights, human rights, civil rights,
environmental and labor protections. We are
against the exploitation of child labor,” said
Rosa Rosales, President of the League of United
Latin American Citizens (LULAC).
“It’s election time,
and a lot of politicians are blaming immigrants
for the fact that working people keep losing
ground in the United States,” said Oscar Chacon,
co-founder of the National Association of Latin
American and Caribbean Communities (NALACC), a
national umbrella organization of Latino
immigrant-led organizations in the United
States. “But most of these immigrant-baiting
politicians are the same ones who are pushing a
reckless expansion of the very international
economic policy that results in increasing
inequality here and abroad, and that NAFTA-style
trade agreements seek to reinforce,” stated Mr.
Chacon.
The convening organizations of
the National Latino Congreso, the first
comprehensive gathering of Latino leaders,
organizations and elected officials since 1977,
include the Labor Council for Latin American
Advancement (LCLAA), the League of United Latin
American Citizens (LULAC), the Mexican American
Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), the
National Alliance of Latin American and
Caribbean Communities (NALACC), the National
Hispanic Environmental Council, Southwest Voter
Registration Education Project (SVREP), the
William C. Velasquez Institute and Earth Day
Network (EDN). The goal of the 5-day long event
is the creation of an action plan and long term
Latino agenda.
To read the entire resolution,
as well as the other resolutions from the
National Latino Congreso, go to
www.latinocongreso.org.
The passage of the resolution
came after Latino leaders and trade experts held
a press conference on the link between U.S.
trade policy and immigration on Thursday,
September 7th. To read the press
release from that event, please visit:
http://www.citizen.org/documents/TradeandImigration_PressRelease_FINAL.pdf
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