Immigration.

Immigration. Has anyone seen it in the news? Yeah me too. So here's my $.02.

In 1996 and 1997 I served a 2 year church mission in the Culiacan Mexico region. During the 2 years that I spend there I had the insight that I would never have been able to experience in the comfortable home that I lived in back in Washington. I remember when I arrived at my first apartment. Concrete floors, brick walls, concrete ceiling, gravity flow water, cold only. I soon learned that we had it pretty good. My food allowance was $300-pesos per month. Back then roughly $30 per month. And let me tell you it was plenty, shopping wisely. The majority of the people I worked with there made less in a month than I made in a week back home just delivering pizza. Another thing. The government had about as much control over the area as the paperboy did at home. The area was completely ruled over by the druglords.

Having said that. What drives these people to come to our country? Need we even ask. The living conditions here are far superior to almost any in the countries they come from. Do we need regulation? Of course. Do we need to round up the 11-20 million people that are here illegally or undocumented? Well let's get real. Take all the people in New Orleans and try to get them out in a timely manner......RIGHT.......We've proven we can do that really well. Yes I agree some people need to go home but many have tried to integrate into our society by learning English and are striving to become educated and move their lives forward. Let me please stress that last part. Learning English. When I was assigned to serve for 2 years in Mexico I was told I had to learn Spanish. Upon arriving there there was no-one to translate for me. No bilingual signs, or anything. Four yes FOUR months later I was getting by quite well with the Spanish I had learned and by six months I was doing fine. After 2 years many people would tease me due to the heavy Culiacan accent I had acquired.... And I hold the success I had while there to the learning of that language.... You can practically link success by immigrants in the USA to the learning of the English language......

I agree something must be done to remedy the situation. As President Bush stated "We need COMPREHENSIVE Immigration reform" It will not be an easy road but NOW is the time to tackle it.

Stay tuned for more on Immigration.