[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 17158-17159]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                CAFTA AND ITS NEGATIVE IMPACT ON LATINOS

  (Ms. SOLIS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. SOLIS. Mr. Speaker, today I rise in opposition to CAFTA because 
it is a bad policy for families that I represent in my district, 
particularly Latino families not only in the United States but in 
Central America.
  CAFTA will outsource valuable American jobs. In fact, in the last 10 
years when we approved NAFTA, we lost 1,000 jobs in my district alone.
  CAFTA will destroy the jobs of subsistence for farmers and others who 
depend on the environment in Central America.
  As the only member of Central American descent, I think I do have the 
right to say that poverty there is still something that is very real 
for many of the people that live in Central America and particularly 
they will be most affected, whether it is their health care, access to 
medicines, whether it is farming jobs there. All that is at stake for 
people in Central America.

[[Page 17159]]

  I am afraid to say that if we take away those opportunities, those 
individuals might want to come here to this country. And I know that 
there is a movement here in this country to say close the borders, but 
at the same time we are sending signals that we are going to be helping 
the very wealthy in these countries and not those who need it very 
much.
  So I would oppose CAFTA and ask my colleagues to do so as well.

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