I think NAFTA has been rather successful.
During its time in effect, quite a few factories have been built in Mexico providing good paying jobs. The export of US goods to Mexico has risen, which means the standard of living in Mexico has to have risen in proportion. We have a trade deficit of $50B+ with Mexico, all of that money boosts their GDP and allows them to invest. Mexico's own GDP has grown faster than the USA's since NAFTA was enacted.
I don't think a whole lot of jobs moved to Mexico as Perot warned. The "made in china" stamped on everything from clothing to electronics to durable goods seems to indicate China (and India, too) is where the bulk of manufacturing jobs are.
Mexico is just a terribly poor nation. Their GDP is about $2T and their population is 121M. That's roughly $9,700 per person, compared to about $50,000 per person in the USA. The money isn't divided evenly per person, though. A good job in most places in Mexico can pay $300/month. You try and live on that.
The wall we're building and the war on drugs has turned Mexico into a gangland. The economic incentives of the war on drugs (higher drug prices, massive profits) work in the gangs' favor. The wall and increased presence of armed border patrol has turned one of the longest peaceful borders into a battle zone.
I'm not getting the open borders thing being a disaster. For the most part, those who want to cross our borders without going through customs are getting through.
Yet, we can see from the data that 90% of Mexicans stay in Mexico. There's no rush for the border as fear mongers claim. I mean, do the math: 120M population in Mexico, 12M "illegal" immigrants total, most from Mexico.
