One reason I remember that so vividly was that one of the Vietnamese who arrived in the U.S. as a refugee was a former naval officer by the name of Thiet Lee. He ran our warehouse. He learned “fluent English,� which we just couldn‟t understand because of his accent, but Thiet and his family were a magnificent addition to the American culture as all of his children within a year spoke good English and were school Valedictorians, or on the way to becoming one in the high schools. They all earned college scholarships and integrated beautifully into America. I remember writing a Ruff Times article when people were saying we shouldn‟t bring these immigrants into America, just like we fought tooth and nail against bringing the Irish, the Jews, the Germans and the Poles into America. They became American citizens. In many ways they are the backbone of American culture. I have no sympathy for the immigrant haters.

Illegal Immigrants There are several problems with the Mexicans coming across the border: 1) they are able to do it with impunity; 2) criminals are among them and end up being 1/3 of our jail population; 3) terrorists may be among them; and 4) they are not becoming Americans but maintaining their separate culture, language, etc. The problem isn‟t that they are coming, the problems is that they are not becoming Americans, like the Germans, the Jews, the Poles, the Jews and the Irish who were determined to become Americans. Therein is the real problem; these hard-working Mexicans who do stoop labor under the hot sun in the fields of Arizona  California (add Florida) , are a real problem to us, not because they are here, but because they won‟t integrate. I think we have to admit they are here and try to turn them into an American asset. We have a two-fold problem: 1) we must prevent Mexicans from coming across the border; and 2) we have to deal with the 12 million that are already here, to make them valuable, integrated Americans. In the arguments over the current immigration bill, the problem is that they are trying to address all these factors as if they were one problem: trying to deal with the 12 million who are already here and preventing more from coming. Let‟s tackle these situations one at a time:

1) They are coming here with impunity. Why are they coming? Because they are starving in Mexico. Mexico has a terrible political/economic structure. It consists of the poor peasants and the rich. The rich are thrilled to have America assume responsibility for their healthcare, their welfare, their jobs, etc. so Mexico doesn‟t have to do that. Millions of Mexicans are here out of desperation, because if they go back to the Pueblo they came from, there are no businesses, no jobs, and only suffering and possibly starvation or death from common illnesses for them and their families. The ________________________________________________________________________________________

Mexican government is doing nothing to make it tolerable for them to stay in Mexico. The government of Mexico is thrilled to have us take over their welfare program. 2) Anyone born in America, whether the parents are illegal aliens or not, is, by law, an American citizen. Women in the late stages of pregnancy are climbing fences, swimming rivers and hiking through scorching deserts to have their children born in America because if their children are born here and are American citizens, then they pretty much have a right under our law to stay here with their children. In order to stop some Mexicans from coming, we must change that law so that just being born here doesn‟t entitle you to be a citizen with all of the benefits of citizenship, including free education, free healthcare, free emergency-room treatment at the hospital, free welfare programs, and a vastly better way of life than the one they left, even when working at substandard wages. To block much of the illegal immigration, we must change the law so you can‟t become a citizen just because you were born here, so your family has a right to stay to take care of you. Mexico will not change unless we really put the screws to them, and Mexico has to make an effort to take care of their poor by opening up the economy and giving free-market benefits to small business-men so the people have a reason to stay, and less reason to go to America. Until that hole is plugged, they will keep pouring over the borders! The majority of them are the hard-working, cheap labor we need to pick our fruit, and build our houses. It is not just the agriculture industry that depends on them, but the housing industry is totally dependent as well on the hard-working Mexicans.

3) How heartless are we willing to be? Are we prepared to dump 12 million Mexicans back into Mexico? Someone once said that if you put them all on school buses and sent them back, there are so many of them that the school buses would reach bumper to bumper twice across the country. We can‟t send them back because: a) we don‟t know where they are; b) we can‟t catch them under our law because we don‟t have the personnel or the transportation; and c) we are forced to recognize the unpalatable situation that is here to stay. Conservative Principles The conservatives will tell you it is wrong to reward an illegal act (crossing the border) by letting them become American citizens. That‟s an emotionally appealing idea, but it doesn‟t solve the problem. As the Germans, and the Jews, and the Poles came, they became useful contributors to America. We should concentrate on how we can make 12- million illegal aliens useful contributors to America. They need a heavily qualified free pass for citizenship. Many people have said they should go back to Mexico and get in line with the legal immigrants who have been waiting, sometimes for months or even years, for a green card so they can come here honestly. That just won‟t work! Why? Because as the law is now being interpreted, if you have been to America and have tangled in any way with the law, and go back home, you are not allowed to apply to come back! So trying to induce them to go back and get in line for years won‟t work for several reasons: 1) they might starve to death in the meantime because the lack of jobs and income in Mexico could kill them before the waiting period is over, and 2) our terribly dysfunctional immigration system won‟t even begin to process them fast enough. I remember writing about Apartheid in South Africa years ago, saying that there were only two countries then that people were trying to break into. One was South Africa, where blacks were breaking in to get good jobs in the gold mines, and America. The rest of the world seemed to consist of countries that people were trying to break out of. We are now seeing that same phenomenon. America is the place people want to break into, and it‟s way too easy. The question is, how heartless are we willing to be? Are we willing to send everyone back to Mexico to no jobs, extreme poverty and perhaps starvation? Are we willing to break up families so that child born here are citizens and would stay, but the parents who would take care of them are gone? I don‟t think so

So forget the rhetoric about how we shouldn‟t reward them for their criminal act of crossing the border illegally by getting them in line for citizenship ahead of all those who have been waiting (stupidly) in line for many years. On tactical and legal grounds, it just won‟t work. All of the immigrant groups that preceded them, many of whom came here when we simply opened the doors and let them in, have all become useful citizens. Many of our military in Iraq are their descendents. What can we do to turn Mexicans into Americans? The reality is that if you can‟t find them, you can‟t send them home and they might starve if you do. Here‟s what should happen: 1) We need to apply all kinds of political pressure to Mexico‟s richest segment of society, which is pretty much what‟s there, to be willing to be taxed to benefit those hungry people. Mexico needs to be willing to take care of Mexicans. I never thought I would argue for a welfare program, but Mexico needs one. We have one, and they are taking full advantage of it here. Many hospitals are having to close or are bankrupt because of sick illegals. That‟s intolerable. As is the fact that terrorists can come here with impunity because they often look like Latins. Let‟s try to deal with the 12 million people we have here already. I suggest that one of the conditions under which they could stay here is to require them to check into classes in English, American culture and other specifics. If they won‟t check in, they go back to Mexico. This would take a very tough law that if they don‟t show up for class, they are now persona non grata here. Where will we get all the teachers? May I suggest that the LDS church could help because there are tens of thousands of young missionaries who went to Spanish-speaking countries who speak the language and could teach in it, and the church should call them, even to unpaid situations, to teach willing people the culture and language of America. Perhaps we would turn these illegal immigrants into a great asset for America, rather than the monstrous liability they are now. 2) We should give them six months or a year of healthcare for themselves and their children, and then cut it off.

3) The children should not be able to be America citizens just because they were born here. If their parents are illegal, they are illegal. When we arrest them or deport them, we don‟t just send mommy and daddy home to Mexico and leave the children to be tended by our welfare system – they all go. The problem is not immigration. The problem is acculturation. We need to make them real Americans and turn them into an incredible asset. Most of them already have the work ethic, so they are partly there already. We should stop conservative rhetoric that says “they came here illegally and we shouldn‟t reward that.� The question is not rewarding that, the question is how do you turn them from a liability to an asset?