Immigration Reform

There's a lot of political buzz, especially here in Arizona, over reforming the immigration laws of the United States.

There's a few things I'd like to say that I think could go a long way in creating the kind of immigration reform I'd like to see here.

First of all, we need to do more about securing our borders. This isn't about keeping law abiding neighbors of other countries out, it's about keeping the citizens of other countries who want to kill Americans out. We've already had one 9/11/2001, I do not wish to see another repeat of this.

Unfortunately, this idea is fostering an us vs. them mentality, where people are pushing it to include the law abiding neighbors.

For Mexico, I would love to see another conversation come out of this: what can we as a people (as well as We The People of The United States Government) do to help the people of Mexico create a better Mexico?

If I were the President of Mexico, I would be ashamed to lead a country of people willing to die to leave rather than willing to die to live there.

Personally, I believe the people of Mexico want a better Mexico, they don't know how to go about creating that change. It's all about education, plus some pushing on our Government's part.

In my Church, there is a Perpetual Education Fund. This allows people from all over the world to receive the funds to get a good education, then once they graduate they repay the fund for the money they've used (there's no interest on the loans, however additional donations are always welcome).

I've been reading the book "Age of Turbulence" by Alan Greenspan. One point he brings up is about land ownership. I haven't done the research on this, but are the poor in Mexico able to purchase property of their own in Mexico, or is this reserved for only those wealthy enough to afford it?

As for the news about Bill Gates giving money towards farming in underdeveloped countries, would this be a possibility in Mexico? I honestly do not have an answer to this, but it's worth looking into.

As for our Government, what is the money for the aid to Mexico going towards? I know there is some aid that is slated to go towards stopping the drug trafficking between Mexico and the U.S. I'd like to see more accountability of where that money is going towards, namely towards creating jobs that will pay well in Mexico. In fact, any jobs created by the U.S. Foreign Aid should be subject to the same minimum wages that we have here.

I'd like to see a joint education initiative also come out of this. As it is now, if a family in Mexico cannot afford private schooling, the children do not go to school at all. There are no truancy laws (or at least they are not enforced) to get the children in Mexico educated. This is another area that needs to change, and that can happen with the help of the U.S. Government.

The technology is there for children in Mexico to meet and learn from children in other countries, this technology could also be applied towards teacher development as well. Are we using the technology as well as we can? The wealthiest man in the world comes from Mexico, and just happens to have among his holdings ownership of a telecommunications/cable company. Perhaps some of his money could go towards getting schools in remote areas up and running with the technology to make this happen?

We just celebrated the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The principal of the school I work at spoke this week about how Dr. King was all about creating an atmosphere in the U.S. of equal opportunities. The U.S. isn't perfect as far as creating equal opportunities for our own citizens, but we shouldn't forget there are countries where there are no opportunities at all, and no one to assist in the people's fight for those opportunities. One of those countries seems to be Mexico.