To the editor;

There has been a surge of illegal immigrants from Mexico. This is the direct result of NAFTA. Corporations in the United States and Mexico have benefited. Wages have declined for Mexican and U.S. workers – a lose-lose situation.

With corporations shifting many jobs to Mexico in the 1990s, it may be counterintuitive that Mexican wages declined. This occurred through NAFTA provisions opening Mexico to unrestricted sale of U.S.-subsidized farm products.

Mexican farm subsidies were stopped. Crop subsidies continued here. Hundreds of thousands of campesinos, no longer able to make a living on the land, went to the cities flooding the labor pool. Employers could, and did, decrease wages. Unionization was seldom allowed.

Many U.S. corporations eventually left Mexico for even lower-wage markets in Asia. Mexican wages have declined some more.

Lately, members of Congress, including Rep. Dennis Moore and Sens. Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback have adopted similar provisions in CAFTA. Many Central American campesinos will be hard-put to provide a livelihood for their families. It’s predictable that more Central Americans will join their Mexican neighbors in attempts to find work in the United States to support their families.

The corollary of cheap food – notably grain-fed meat – is a low-wage scale in the United States and among our neighbors to the south. Better to discontinue crop subsidies and substitute federal aid to farmers for environmentally safe and sustainable farming practices.

We all gain from a cleaner environment.