4now and chuck,

Thank you both!

Give young immigrants way to earn right to stay

By Ruben Navarrette Jr.

Article Launched: 10/10/2007 01:32:33 AM PDT

Since the demise of comprehensive immigration reform earlier this year, I've been looking for another idea that would give illegal immigrants the chance to become legal but require that those who receive such a privilege give back quite a bit in return.

For a while, I thought this sort of thing would never materialize. In fact, you could say, I thought I was dreaming. But now comes the DREAM Act (for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors). The idea needs adjustments, but it's a step in the right direction. The measure - proposed by Sen. **** Durbin, D-Ill. - would give U.S. citizenship to individuals if they had come to the United States before age 16, graduated from high school or received a GED, and completed two years of college or military service. Durbin tried to insert the idea as an amendment to the defense authorization bill, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid nixed it because there wasn't enough support. Reid did promise to bring the DREAM Act to a vote next month.

It's the mention of military service that concerns those on the extreme left, who fret that students who can't afford college might be so eager for citizenship that they could wind up in Iraq. Meanwhile, the extreme right thinks that the idea will serve as a magnet for illegal immigration (as opposed to say, jobs) and rejects it as nothing more than - wait for it - amnesty.

As usual, both extremes are wrong. But to assuage some of those concerns, I think the DREAM Act should be tweaked so that students have to complete a four-year degree or four-year military enlistment before qualifying, and then they would qualify only for legal residency - not citizenship. Once they become legal, they should have to follow the same steps anyone else does to obtain citizenship. We might also add a third option besides college or the military. How about two years of national service in a poor community within the United States? If the point is to find some way for these young people to contribute to the betterment of a country that is about to grant them legal status, that would surely do the trick.

The specifics can be worked out, but let's not lose sight of the real strength of the DREAM Act. It's the quid pro quo of offering illegal immigrants a path to legalization but not making that path a cakewalk. It offers something precious - the right to stay in the United States legally - but it isn't bashful about demanding certain things in return.

Every single piece of immigration reform that comes along should strike the same sort of bargain. Those who don't want to accept the terms and take the deal can go about their business, and bet their chances with immigration authorities. But those who do will have demonstrated that they're willing to make an investment in a country that has already given them a lot and stands to give them much more. In return, the rest of us get a higher-earning, greater-producing legal resident who can contribute to society for many years to come.

Speaking of a contribution, there are those who don't seem to be making much of one in this debate. Far and away, one of the shrillest and most alarming arguments against this bill is coming from conservative Republicans who insist that enacting this sort of reform would somehow reduce educational opportunities for native-born U.S. citizens by forcing them to compete with illegal immigrants for admission to colleges, scholarships and the like. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, glibly labeled the DREAM Act "a nightmare" that would drain scarce resources.

It's official. The protectionists have no shame. We now have members of Congress who - after years of arguing that Americans are threatened by trade deals, high-tech workers and low-wage laborers - are trying to protect native-born high school students from the embarrassment of competing with illegal immigrant students and losing out.

It just hit me. What Americans really need is a domestic DREAM Act for our own kids - something to remind the little darlings that, if you want something out of life, you have to put something back in. If they learn that, they won't need protecting.


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For those posters that are anti-immigrant, Now don't do like Lou D. and say this is an absurd statement-"I love immigrants, it's illegal alians I hate." I thought a article I read tells the real story.

I copy----



Migration of Mexicans Can't Be Stopped, Says Felipe Calderon
Mexican President Talks Exclusively to Diane Sawyer About Immigration Issues


The question of how to deal with the hundreds of thousands of illegal Mexicans entering the United States each year has become a divisive issue across the country.



President Bush signed a bill last year that authorized the construction of a 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, which would cost billions of dollars.


Mexican President Felipe Calderon has called the idea of building the fence "deplorable," and said today on "Good Morning America" that he wanted to strengthen the Mexican economy to keep Mexicans there.



"Let me tell you, I think that the only way to stop migration is to provide to the people opportunities here in Mexico," Calderon said in an exclusive interview with Diane Sawyer.



The Pew Research Center estimated that about 6.2 million undocumented Mexicans lived in the United States in 2005.


A majority of the Mexicans who cross the border are young and male. And while many of the immigrants come to the states seeking jobs and security, a large number of them already were employed in their native country.



Their goal is to make money in America and to send it back home and into the Mexican economy. The transaction is a huge boost to Mexico's economy, providing $20 billion a year in additional funds.


Calderon said having the youngest, strongest and bravest leaving the home country and their families take a huge toll on Mexico.



Calderon told Sawyer that some of his own relatives live and work in the United States— "some of them in the vegetable fields, others in restaurants and others in construction," he said.


Immigration to America is a "natural phenomenon," Calderon said, because Mexico has a large, young labor force that is needed by U.S. businesses, a sentiment that some politicians and business leaders across the country agree with.
Help Wanted
New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg has said his city would "collapse if they were deported," referring to Mexican immigrants.


The agriculture and the food service industries across the country are especially reliant on Mexican workers. A recent report out of Washington said that apple growers don't have the workers to harvest the fruit.


"If you took away Hispanic labor from agriculture and from dairying in Wisconsin, we'd be in crisis," said Wisconsin Secretary of Agriculture Rod Nilestuen. "There's no two ways about that."


Calderon said that Mexico needs to attract more American capital into the country to create more jobs and provide comprehensive regulations about immigration.



Finding a common ground in the United States on those regulations has proved difficult. Congress failed to pass an immigration reform bill in June that would have allowed a guest worker program.


Now the White House is reportedly rewriting regulations that restrict foreign workers in order to save farmers' harvests across the country.



But not everyone agrees that the influx of immigrants is a positive thing. While the majority of immigrants pay taxes totalling billions of dollars, it still costs American taxpayers to subsidize the health-care and education costs of illegals.



The issue has become so polarizing that angry protests across the country have occasionally erupted in violence.



Calderon said that he knows there is an anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States, and he said that is fueling anti-American feelings in Mexico.



The Mexican president says he can envision a prosperous North America — the United States, Canada and Mexico working together to become an economic powerhouse.



"I can see that the world is open, new ways, new bridge, and we are building fences, instead of bridges," Calderon said. "So we need to, to recover the rational discussion about this matter, about this issue, because otherwise at the end of the road both countries and both societies will make a lot of mistakes."



Copyright © 2007 ABCNews


http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3701738&page=1

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Bloomberg.com

Calderon Says Mexican Immigration to U.S. Can't Be Stopped

By Brendan Walsh



Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon said the illegal immigration of Mexicans to the U.S. can't be stopped because of the strong demand for inexpensive labor there.



``It's impossible to stop that by decree. It's impossible to try to stop that with a fence,'' Calderon said today in a taped interview with ABC News' ``Good Morning America.''



A lack of job prospects prompts more than 400,000 Mexicans to enter the U.S. each year seeking work both legally and illegally, according to the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington.



The U.S. Senate this month voted to spend $3 billion for more fences, patrol agents and surveillance along the U.S.- Mexico border. Calderon said he's seeking to improve economic conditions in Mexico so that citizens don't have to leave the country for work.



``In the future, I can't imagine a Mexico without enough economic growth to provide for them,'' Calderon said during the ABC interview. ``I want to build the conditions in Mexico to provide the opportunities here.''



To contact the reporters on this story: Brendan Walsh in New York at Bwalsh8@bloomberg.net



Last Updated: October 8, 2007 08:35 EDT



http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aXesybqZcKsU&refer=us

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Reuters

Mexican leader critiques U.S. border fence
Mon Oct 8, 12:35 PM ET


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon criticized the planned U.S. border fence designed to stem illegal immigration, saying countries should be "building bridges, not fences" in an interview broadcast on Monday.


On ABC television's "Good Morning America," Calderon lauded President George W. Bush's failed attempt to get the U.S. Congress to approve comprehensive immigration reform, and said the way to stop illegal immigration is to build economic growth and opportunities in Mexico, not fences.
"The world is open in new ways," he said. "We are building fences instead of bridges."



The U.S. Congress last year authorized construction of 700 miles of fences along portions of the border, although it has not yet given final approval to all construction costs.



Asked about estimates that Mexicans in the United States illegally send home $20 billion to their families, Calderon said the exodus is not a boon to the Mexican economy because the country is losing ambitious young people.



He mentioned complaints by U.S. farmers that the crackdown on migrants meant they did not have enough workers to harvest their crops, and said "capital and labor are like right shoe and left shoe."
He predicted the flow of Mexicans illegally crossing into the United States would decrease, possibly within a decade, as Mexico's economy grew. "I want to build the conditions in Mexico to provide the opportunities here in our land."



He said he hoped the United States and Mexico could see each other as allies as they confront challenges from Asian economies.



"I hope that one day the people in America could see the Mexican people as friends, like allies."