Immigration

The Latino community in California came out in force this weekend to attempt to sway congressional moves to restrict immigration. The interesting thing is that I'm sitting in the hotel lobby area and Univision is on in Spanish and two guys are speaking Spanish next to me and this issue is being pushed hard. As a person who lived in San Diego for ten years, I have a bit of a different perspective than those in the heartland and east coast.

That said, we as a nation must have a stronger immigration policiy for several reasons. Mainly because of the potential for terrorist elements to enter the country. Second, we have served as Vicente Fox's political out for the last five years. He can't supply his people with suitable jobs so he lashes out at the US for protecting our borders. Illegal immigration pumps billions of dollars into a frightful Mexican economy.

Lastly, we as a nation are spending way too much tax money supporting those who have chosen the illegal route to our nation and not followed the law as those who arrive from Europe and Asia in the last century did.

This is humorous, the caption to a photo of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa reads:

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa speaks against the proposed legislation that would criminalize illegal immigration.

How wrong and heartless would the Republicans be if they "criminalized" something that is "illegal"?

Update: Bush goes against the base again on this issue. The port deal and the Harriet Miers nomination will look like small inconveniences if he fails to heed to the party on this issue. McCain, as a Senator from a border state will have the same problem. More at CardMart who is in the thick of things in SoCal.

Update 2: As I've been on a plane for the entire day, I missed that Congress caved. Typical.