Nearly two decades after NAFTA was implemented, the goals and promises of the agreement remain unrealized. In fact, quite the opposite has resulted. NAFTA has been devastating to the U.S. trade deficit and has resulted in massive job losses—particularly in the manufacturing sector. Between 1994 and 2010, U.S. trade deficits with Mexico totaled $97.2 billion and displaced an estimated 682,900 U.S. jobs. Nearly all of the losses were in manufacturing.

Job losses play a role in the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States as well. Since NAFTA began, nearly 300,000 family farms in Mexico have been put out of business. The lack of work is forcing Mexican workers to seek employment and better opportunities elsewhere to support their families. The United States is where they set their sights; the number of Mexicans migrating each year to our country has more than doubled. In 1993, there was an estimated 3.9 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. By 2011, that number exploded to an estimated 23 million.

Illegal immigration is something that will not be fixed unless our government leaders place particular attention on the root causes behind migration to the U.S. This means that if we want any sort of immigration reform, elements of NAFTA are going to have to be readdressed and improved upon, because the failures of the North American Free Trade Agreement have resulted in the job losses, outsourcing, trade deficits, and migration that we are faced with today. If the job outlook continues to remain unfavorable in Mexico, we will continue to see illegal immigrants seeking opportunities here. Renegotiating NAFTA is where real immigration reform must begin.