Various Ideas About Illegal Immigration

My wife, Nancy, and I have been living among multitudes of Hispanic undocumented immigrants in Denver, Colorado, for many years. We have served this population of poor and helpless people in the best way we can through charitable Christian organizations. We know these people.

Lately, I have been looking at the various ideas of how the United States might handle our difficult problem with illegal immigration. One rich source of ideas and information is a web site authored by Henryk A. Kowalczyk.http://bit.ly/137WFe(paste into your browser). I do not agree with everything that Mr. Kowalczyk says, but he certainly has ideas that should be considered by us all. I would request that everyone interested in the problem of illegal immigration across the U.S./Mexico border look at his web site.

Another person to whom I have been listening is Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City. Mayor Bloomberg thinks the future of our country mostly rests with the beneficial effects of rather unrestricted immigration. He has a very rosy picture of Hispanic immigrants in the United States. Mayor Bloomberg is under some impressions that I cannot share. These impressions are as follows:

• Hispanics are ready and able to come to the United States, buy a house, and live here for five years without accessing any public services. This is just nonsense. These people are quite poor; and they have, for the most part, only a 3rd grade Mexican education. They have no money; and they cannot compete in the United States culture at this time. They do not buy houses or any real estate; they live in tenement apartment houses. The proprietors of these apartment houses tell me the immigrants move about every 11 months.
• Hispanic immigrants are capable of establishing entrepreneurial businesses. These poor people do not have the educational, economic, or cultural wherewithal to establish any kind of business. They work in construction projects or housekeeping jobs when someone else can hire them.
• Hispanic families are eager to have their children excel in school; and they are willing to work with their children to see that they do well. This is patently untrue. The immigrants we have seen in Denver have no interest in education. They can barely read their own language, themselves; and their only ambition seems to be that they want to get on some kind of government welfare program. Furthermore, they have no learning skills. They fail to recognize patterns in language, which is a skill taught in kindergarten; and they expect to learn how to speak English after attending 1-3 hours of instruction.

After all this, I would say that there is a way to help these very poor and helpless people in our country. We should do it, too! We have an obligation as good neighbors and Christians to help those people south of the border. We must think of ourselves as our brothers’ keepers in this issue. We must help others to come into the fellowship of man—they need help; and you will read about how this might come about if you will read Mr. Kowalczyk’ blog and look at my next blog post at http://www.manringen.blogspot.com (copy and paste into your browser).