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FACTS AND STATS:
- 78% of Central
Americans live below the poverty line which, according
to the World Bank, is less than $2 a day.
- The average Central American worker
makes about $900 a year.
- The U.S. government employs 9,000
people and spends 1.2 billion-a-year
to hold back the tide of people crossing it's
borders illegally. The Border Patrol estimates
that they catch only 1 in 3 or
1 in 4 of illegal immigrants.
- A television ad in Mexico meant
to deter illegal immigration to the U.S. stated
that at least 1 person dies every
day trying to enter Mexico from Central
America.
- A 1997 study found that during
the journey from Central American to the U.S.,
an immigrant faces, on average 3
traumatic events ranging from problems
with police to beatings by bandits to starvation.
- Sending Central
Americans home from the U.S. costs $1,700
per person compared to $22
from Mexico.
- Each year 400,000
people cross the border into the U.S. Most are
from Mexico and Central America. One fifth of
these are under the age of 18. About one quarter
are women.
- There are 200,000
illegal immigrants living in Canada. Many of them
live in southern Ontario and are an integral part
of the construction trade.
- There are 9 million
illegals in the U.S. 50%
come from Mexico. The rest are from South and
Central America and China.
- The International Monetary Fund
reported in 2002 that underground work amounted
to 10% of the entire U.S.
economy.
- More than 40%
of Hispanic immigrants in the United States regularly
send money to relatives in their native countries,
a flow of funds totaling nearly $30
billion. This amount is almost double the
entire U.S. foreign aid budget for all nations.
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