Response to President Calderone

I listened to parts of President Calderone’s speech to Congress yesterday. I admit I have to agree with him on some issues but I disagree with him on others. I don’t believe we need immigration reform. We need immigration enforcement and legal immigration procedures.

The United States has not always been a good neighbor to Mexico. We have a history of invading Mexico. Once we even invaded it to protect our oil interest in the country. Imagine that! There is an old saying that good fences make good neighbors.

This is my solution to the problem.

We build a 10 –15 foot wall, with electrified barbed wire at the top, across the whole border and place guard towers every ten miles as suggested by others. This would create jobs. I think we could probably build it for less than the billion dollars plus that we pay to Mexico to fight the drug traffic.

A secondary benefit to this plan is that the flow of weapons into Mexico from the United States would be greatly reduced. This would help Mexico.

Although, I am in favor of closing the border, I believe that the racial profiling that is going on in Arizona is unconstitutional. I understand Arizona’s frustration with the increasing flow of illegal aliens into their state and the drain on resources. Arizona would not have passed this law if the federal government was doing its job. The law is a cry for help and Washington needs to listen.

There are approximately 10,000 students from other countries living in Dekalb County Georgia and the economic burden of educating them is huge. I can only imagine what type of burden the illegal immigrants are placing on the schools and hospitals in Arizona where the issue is more severe. Many of the illegal immigrants have come to the United States to escape dire poverty and war in their home countries. Like many of our ancestors, they have come for a better life.

I have found that the children from foreign countries who are in the schools where I work are hard working. Generally they take school seriously and want to better themselves. I do not find fault with that. Each of us would do almost anything to make our lives better and we would do more to make our children’s lives better.

What I find fault with is the ease that people can just walk into this country. We have historically granted amnesty to illegal aliens. The next year we had more illegal aliens. It does no good to grant amnesty if we are going to continuously have to do it. Let us do it one more time. Close the border then grant amnesty to illegal aliens who meet certain criteria. The ones who have proven their willingness to assimilate, who contribute to society, pay taxes and obey the laws of the country. After that, deport everyone who is found to be here illegally. (Hint: Do not announce the plan for amnesty until after the wall is built!)