President Trump’s new version of NAFTA could be the game-changer for immigration out of Mexico.  In Mexico, those working in the car factories, must make at least $16/hour.

“…In recent days, U.S. and Mexican diplomats reached agreement on key elements of a new treaty, including an increase in the percentage ofeach car — to 75 percent from the current 62.5 percent — that must be made in North America to qualify for duty-free treatment.  The two sides agreed to a provision that would require a significant portion of each vehicle to be made in high-wage factories, a measure aimed at discouraging factory jobs from leaving the United States for Mexico….”

This is a very big deal.  Contrary to popular opinion, there are places within the Mexican economy that pay fairly well, but not near what the same worker here in the US would make.  One of the reasons for the unchecked illegal immigration of Mexicans was due to the fact that, upon hearing of good jobs in cities like Juarez, people left their small interior communities for good jobs.  Like any decent job, certain skills are required.  When men and women arrived in border towns like Juarez, they discovered nothing but poverty, depravity, and abject despair.  Women were sucked into prostitution.  Young men, in order to survive, began hanging around the drug trade.

One reason people had no problem making the horrible crossing to the US is life along the border became so cheap, anything was better than where they were living in unreal slums of cities like Juarez.  Because of NAFTA, life in the border towns became worthless.  It still is.

Something else most people don’t grasp, especially liberals who have never been anywhere near the southwest is the fact that Mexico does have a very healthy middle class.  They cross the border by tens of thousands on a daily basis, some working here, shopping, visiting, spending the weekend.  Around the Deming area, kids from Mexico cross the border each day to go to US schools!  Where I live, maybe 25 miles from the border, every weekend people are up, to hit garage sales.

But – the liberal left doesn’t quite comprehend this.  They don’t comprehend the fact that there are numerous social classes in Mexico, with the country being a melting pot.  I have friends from Mexico with one parent from Mexico and the other from Germany or one from Mexico and the other from Italy.  It is a wealthy nation – if you are one of the elite, or the middle class.

Quite frankly, the real problem in Mexico is the abject corruption of the political class.  While they keep their borders closed as tightly as a crew cabin door on a launch vehicle, they have no problem allowing migrants from countries to travel through Mexico to literally invade the US. They don’t want these people in Mexico, and do not allow them. But, they want to push them into the US.

As for this demand to raise wages, it could be an immigration game-changer.  Then again, maybe not.