U.S. officials promote programs for Mexican illegal immigrants

Edwin Garcia:

U.S. government officials convened Monday in San Francisco to promote programs, services and benefits available to Mexican immigrants in this country, including those who are undocumented, under a binational effort aimed at protecting workers' rights and improving the health of families.

The officials from the Department of Labor and Department of Agriculture spoke to dozens of representatives of Mexican consulates from throughout the Western United States in a daylong training seminar aimed at jointly promoting immigrant rights.

"We are interested in making sure that all eligible people participate in our programs because we think our programs are very worthwhile," said Allen Ng, a regional administrator with the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service, which provides meals to children in school, among other programs. "This partnership with the Mexican consulate is just another avenue for outreach."

A regional administrator for the Labor Department, George Friday, told of how his agency's Wage and Hour Division recouped more than $3 million for 17,000-plus workers in the past year who were owed paychecks from employers.

The government's participation, though, drew criticism from an anti illegal-immigration advocate who noted a paradox - somehow the undocumented can work in the United States, usually through false or misleading documentation, yet their rights are protected.

"This is another indication that the federal government has absolutely no intention to curb illegal immigration," said Yeh Ling-Ling, executive director of Diversity Alliance for a Sustainable America, an Oakland group that wants less immigration. "Americans should be outraged."

While the government representatives seemed careful to not publicly emphasize how illegal immigrants can benefit under federal laws, the consuls and a top official from Mexico's Foreign Ministry in interviews spoke openly about how the undocumented often don't complain about working conditions for fear their employer will have them deported.

"They have to understand that it doesn't matter if they're here undocumented; they have labor rights and cannot be subject to slavery conditions or exploitation," said Juan Bosco Mart, the Foreign Ministry's general director for North American Affairs.

"Most of them don't know about these programs, so we want to do outreach to them," he said.

There are an estimated 10 million Mexican immigrants living in the United States, about half of them illegally, Bosco Mart said, citing Mexican statistics. In addition, about 300,000 Mexicans are believed to migrate annually to work in the United States to meet labor demands, according to Bosco Mart.

A highlight of the seminar was the information provided by Labor Department representatives who explained federal law that states all workers must be paid at least minimum wage. "We are charged with making sure people get paid for their wages," Friday said.

Another emphasis was on the programs provided by the Agriculture Department, such as food stamps, health brochures on diabetes printed in Spanish, and the WIC program, which provides nutrition services to women, infants and children. Not all the department's programs, though, are offered to illegal immigrants.

Officials of both countries said the partnership benefits the United States and Mexico in ways that each nation couldn't achieve independently.

Undocumented workers will be more comfortable reporting workplace abuse to the Labor Department if encouraged by Mexican consular officials. Mexican immigrants and their families who learn to live a healthier lifestyle can reduce the cost of health-care and hospitalization, the officials said.

So apparently the United States government feels that it is better to protect illegal immigrants than to deport them back to Mexico. No wonder border security is such a joke.