The most significant cause of migration of Mexicans to the United States is not the "pull" factor, the lure of relatively well-paying jobs in this country. Far more significant is the "push" factor: the devastation of the Mexican economy that has made it nearly impossible for many Mexican families to secure their livelihood within the borders of their home country. The implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), in effect since 1994, has been a main contributing factor to the devastation of the Mexican economy, and the collusion between big business and both the US and the Mexican governments in realizing NAFTA is undeniable.

SECRETARY CHRISTOPHER: In the longer term, the problem of illegal immigration is importantly related to the success of the economy in Mexico. If they have a vibrant economy with good jobs in Mexico, it will remove one of the principal factors causing illegal immigration. It's not the only one, to be sure. The question of family ties, cultural ties, other things tend to draw Mexicans to the United States; but I think a major factor in reducing illegal immigration to the United States will be the improvement of the economy in Mexico. I think that NAFTA gives a great opportunity through the free trade, which will improve their economy as well as ours, to reduce the push factor.

I saw a piece in the Los Angeles Times this morning that estimated that there would be a dramatic reduction in illegal immigration to the United States, or immigration to the United States, after ten years' operation of NAFTA. I think that is the promise of NAFTA as far as reducing the push factor in illegal immigration.

Prior to its entrance into NAFTA, and as a condition for entering into the terms of the free trade pact, the Mexican government came under pressure to reform laws and even constitutional provisions that had supported key sectors of the Mexican economy, especially an agricultural sector that was bolstered by policies designed to meet the food needs of the domestic population. In the wake of these reforms, Mexican agriculture has been hit by a wave of privatizations, cutbacks in credit to small farmers, the removal of tariffs and price supports that had encouraged the production of staple crops, and the deterioration of the ejido sector, small farms whose land had been held collectively by communities. As a result, there has been a growing wave of campesinos who have lost access to the land that had provided for their subsistence, to wage-labor opportunities in the agricultural sector -- a sector that provided a full one-quarter of all employment as of 1990 -- or both.