SPP'S IMMIGRATION IMPLICATIONS

The Security and Prosperity Partnership

Its Immigration Implications

"No one should be under any illusions that the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) will curb illegal immigration. SPP will result in vastly increased legal migration, and increases in legal immigration are always accompanied by increases in illegal immigration."

Center for Immigration Studies
June 2007

The North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, bound the United States, Canada and Mexico into a trilateral “free trade” relationship among the three nations of the North American continent. Trade enthusiasts hailed NAFTA as holding great promise to elevate the economies of the three nations. Today, “NAFTA Plus,” or the so-called Security and Prosperity Partnership, is gaining more and more attention because it would move well beyond NAFTA and trade, per se.

Importantly, “NAFTA was the first major trade pact signed by the United States to bring significant immigration consequences.” It set a precedent that moved this country down the path of equating “free trade” with not only the free flow of goods across borders, but also trade in services and the borderless flow of people.

Such trade pacts carry huge implications for national sovereignty. While a “free trade agreement” (FTA) does not have the legally binding power of a treaty, which would require two-thirds approval of the U.S. Senate, an FTA does indeed subject participating nations to certain legal obligations to one another.

Download full report: http://www.cis.org/articles/2007/back607.pdf