New Frontier: America's Front Door
J U A R E Z, Mexico, June 5 -- Filiberto Martinez and his family are among the thousands of Mexicans who have flocked to the border town of Juarez in search of a better life.
"In our last apartment," says his wife, Ana Maria, "we had to share the bathroom with nine other families."
"Back on the ranch in Durango [Mexico]," says Filiberto, "there is no water, the land is gone, and there is nothing to do. So people are running to the borders to get jobs."
Martinez is among the fortunate few who have bought homes here. It is a two-room cinder-block structure, but it has plumbing and electricity.
He did it with financial help from his American employer, Delphi, one of 400 U.S.-owned plants, or maquiladoras, in Juarez. Many are high-tech facilities, where employees work for as little as $5 a day to turn out low-cost goods that pour in the United States — everything from auto parts to communications systems. But while the plants are symbols of modern technology, the residential areas are the opposite.
An estimated 50,000 people come to Juarez every year looking for work. Most of them find it. What they don't find are basic services: 150,000 people have no water; 200,000 have no sewers. And every week Juarez grows by three more blocks.
Juarez officials complain that the government in Mexico City has failed to provide money to resolve the crisis, even though the city generates enormous tax revenue. Mayor Gustavo Elizondo says Juarez produces, in federal taxes, about 15 billion pesos, or more than $1.5 billion.
"We get only 6 percent in return for the total taxes the businesses generate," he adds.
'Major Public Health Crisis'
And just across the border, there is a similar complaint. Officials in El Paso, Texas, say Washington has turned a deaf ear to the urgent needs of this booming frontier.
"I keep saying that if you don't help us, we're going to have a major public health crisis on the border," says Ed Archuleta, general manager of the El Paso Water Utilities.
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