The National Day Laborers Network (NDLON) launched a campaign this Monday to ask Mexico to include in its new pension program its elderly undocumented compatriots who have worked in the United States and are not entitled to this benefit.
“It is fair that Mexico recognizes the contribution of these immigrants who have also served the economy of that country for years with their remittances and does not forget them at the end of their lives,” said Pablo Alvarado, co-director of NDLON.
The campaign seeks for the Government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to lend a hand to Mexicans who, due to their immigration status, cannot access a pension in the United States.
The call is for the Mexican executive to include elderly migrants in the Bienestar program, which serves all adults over 68 years of age in that country, and adults over 65 years of age who live in the municipalities of indigenous peoples.
At a press conference this Monday in Los Angeles, several Mexican workers shared their stories and spoke about the future they face due to their undocumented status.
Porfiria Guerrero Gaona, a native of Morelos (Mexico) who arrived in the United States more than three decades ago, said that at 76 years old she still has to work cleaning houses because she has no way to support herself.
The immigrant ruled out the possibility of returning to Mexico because “like many Mexicans, we no longer have anyone there and they don’t give us work at our age.”
“We don’t deserve it because we are the economic source of two countries,” he added about the message to the Mexican president.
Mexican representative Alejandro Robles Gómez participated in the launch of the campaign in which he emphasized the need for the Mexican Legislature to approve granting pensions to Mexicans regardless of the country where they reside.
As part of the campaign, NDLON has been conducting a survey aimed at undocumented Mexicans over the age of 62 who reside in the US.
Professor Nik Theodore of the University of Chicago, who was in charge of the survey, said today at the conference that he has extended the survey deadline so that more Mexicans over the age of 62 can participate.
The survey, the first of its kind, is completely anonymous and exclusively for information and statistical purposes that can support bills in favor of this population.
Theodore asked the immigrants’ grandchildren and children to help them fill out the survey.
“It is important that we discover what is happening and only immigrants who are going through these dilemmas can tell us their story,” said Alvarado.
Mexicans represent the largest number of immigrants without legal status in the United States with 4.1 million people in 2021, representing 39% of the entire undocumented population in the country, according to a recent study by the Pew Center.
However, the Pew Center report detected a decrease in unauthorized immigrants from Mexico, due, among other reasons, to the fact that undocumented Mexicans return to their country of origin.
To participate in the survey, Mexican immigrants can contact NDLON or fill out the form found on their website ndlon.org
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