Detroit’s automakers, the Big Three of General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford, have stepped up their plans to move more of their manufacturing operations to Mexico. Plans continue to build more factories south of the border as the automakers continue to try and streamline costs and avoid the huge union dictated salaries and benefits.

The move will include the assembly of the most popular small vehicles like the Fusion and the Cruz. Industry research firms are already predicting a huge new output of cars coming from their new Mexico plants. By 2020 the Big Three automakers hope to be producing nearly half of their yearly production output in Mexico.

Chrysler has announced that they have no intention of immediately revealing any plans they may have, while Ford commented that most of their vehicles sold in the U.S. and North America are still produced at American manufacturing facilities.

It is likely that these new moves will be commented on by the various candidates running for president. Some, like Donald Trump, have railed against American companies, especially Ford, for moving production facilities to Mexico. He said he would offer such companies incentives to stay in the country is he were elected president.

The other major problem comes from the unions, particularly the United Auto Workers union. Most American unions have stood against the North America Free Trade Agreement since it was pushed through Congress by President Clinton. The United Auto Workers union wished to clarify any misleading statements that have been going around by sternly announcing that they are in no way in favor of manufacturing jobs being moved to Mexico.

The automakers want to move the production of their smaller cars to Mexico mainly for profit reasons. Most American compact cars are losing money on sales or have profit margins that are extremely small. By moving production to Mexico, where their production costs will be greatly reduced, the automakers will be able to see larger profits made from the sales of their compact vehicles.