HARLINGEN, Texas - Expanding the North American Free Trade Agreement into Central America will worsen the job loss for many Hispanic workers in the United States, three labor groups said Monday.

The proposed Central American Free Trade Agreement will "pit U.S. Latinos against their brothers and sisters in Latin America in a race to the bottom," said Jaime Martinez, president of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement.

Martinez, joined by representatives from the Texas Fair Trade Campaign and watchdog group Public Citizen, released a report that blamed a decade of NAFTA with the loss of 2.5 million U.S. jobs. Forty-seven percent of those compensated by a federal program for NAFTA job losses were Hispanic.

Meanwhile in Mexico, wages for industrial workers fell 25 percent. An estimated 1.5 million Central and Southern Mexican farm workers migrated north because they couldn't compete with corn and other U.S. imports that came because of the agreement's tariff reductions.

The migration has pushed past the border, Martinez said, with illegal immigration doubling in the United States.

The Central American Free Trade Agreement has been signed by the Caribbean island nation of the Dominican Republic and the Central American nations of Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala. The agreement needs to be ratified by Congress.

Its fate may depend on voters. The Bush administration hopes Congress will approve it during a lame-duck session after the November election, while Sen. John Kerry said he wants the pact to include more protection for workers and the environment.

U.S. manufacturers and farmers widely see the agreement as a way of opening up a market the size of Canada to everything from computers to road equipment. They say Texas, Louisiana and Florida stand to benefit the most because of geographic proximity and cultural ties. An economic impact study predicts 3,000 new jobs would be created in Houston alone.

But clothing makers and sugar producers worry about the increased competition.

Since NAFTA, employment in U.S. textile mills has fallen 60 percent with a loss of more than 780,000 jobs. Hispanics make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, but 33 percent of the apparel workers.

"We have seen tens of thousands of our jobs being green lights by these trade models to move to Mexico," Martinez said. "Now we will see more of our jobs move to Central America."

U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, who is leading the effort to improve CAFTA in Congress, said the agreement has significant improvements over NAFTA and will not cause the same problems.

"The only thing probably that's similar is that they rhyme," he said.

Duty-free arrangements already are in place with most Central American countries, he said, so there won't be a dramatic effect on the region's exports. Central America has made great strides to improve labor conditions. And there are agreements between U.S. and Central American textile makers to keep competitive against China, Brady said.

"Those who oppose CAFTA are trying to paint a picture of Central America two decades ago," he said. "Closing a market the size of Central America will cost jobs, not save jobs."