We have to face reality. The reason so many of our consumable goods (such as clothing) are so cheap is because they were produced in the cheapest way possible. Someone else pays the price so we don’t have to.

Open your closet and take out your favorite article of clothing. Look at the tag and find out where that prized shirt was made. Then, without using your iMac or atlas, see if you can picture where that country is located on a map. Can you name one or more neighboring countries? Do you know the working conditions in the factory where it was made?

I could tell you where and when I bought most of my clothes, and probably even how much I paid for each piece. Yet I have no idea how much of the money I paid was actually distributed to the workers. I don’t know how old the worker was, or if he or she even made enough money to purchase lunch that day.

“I came here so I could work,” said a Mexican cook from one of the restaurants on the Ave. “That’s it. I need to work. At home, I’m poor; here, I can have a job.” When I asked him if he missed his home near Acapulco, he said, “Of course. I love my home. I love Mexico. But what can I do?”

If a plant in Texas decided to pay their workers $2 an hour for a 12-hour day, without any overtime pay or mandated breaks, we wouldn’t stand for it. The government would intervene, people would boycott their products and there would be demonstrations in the street. Why don’t we do the same thing for a worker across the border in a city like Juarez?

“If I could get a job in Mexico that would actually pay me, I wouldn’t have to come here. I love it in America, but it would be nice to be able to move back home,” the cook said.

Illegal immigration is a problem, no matter how you feel about the issue. But instead of trying to stop people from bettering their lives, we should help them get opportunities at home, in the countries that they love. Trade agreements should benefit both countries, and any American company that has manufacturing facilities outside the United States should have to operate them according to the same standards they have here.

It’s a big problem, but there are small things each of us can do to help. We can support laws, initiatives and policies that ban the use of sub-standard labor. We can commend the UW’s initial efforts to have Husky gear produced in facilities that treat and pay their workers fairly, and we can speak out against organizations like the University of Montana that refuse to do the same. And if we tried to make even half of our purchases more responsible, we would give companies that take care of their workers a chance to compete with those who don’t.

The next time you are heading to the mall, visit a Web site like sweatshopwatch.org first. Take a minute to see who is giving people opportunities and who is exploiting. But if you don’t care and don’t want to change your habits, don’t ever complain about people crossing our border.