Baldemar Velásquez on the Need for ‘Freedom Visas’

 

 

Farmworker advocate Baldemar Velásquez tells Bill Moyers that we should treat the labor market like a commodity — allowing it to move freely over national borders with what he calls “freedom visas.” He also points out that — thanks in part to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) — U.S. trade policy has displaced millions of Mexican corn farmers, encouraging them to look for opportunities in America. “We complain about these same guys coming over our border now,” Velásquez says. “If you want them to stop coming over, it’d be a good idea, but maybe we should stop displacing them, so they wouldn’t have to come here in the first place.”

KJ