Admittedly I am neither a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School nor a policy wonk for the Brookings Institution. In other words, none of the great policy makers are ever going to seek my thoughts or recommendations on immigration or related issues. I could argue that living in Central America for 5+ years would offer me some kind of credentials, but in general people who make policy, control funding, and exert power- sometimes referred to as the Establishment- are not concerned with actual, real-life experience, but with academic pedigrees. It’s kind of like the real world of the Establishment is the pretend world, and those who make decisions that can effect millions of people tend to dismiss, and even disdain, lessons from the actual real world: it’s less hassle to live and advance in the pretend real world than in the real real world. At some level pretend real world people are envious of the real real world people. In the recent presidential election, for example, millions were apparently impressed that the Democrat candidate might have once worked briefly at a MacDonald's decades ago, which in their minds gave her real real world credentials.
Of the 5+ years in Central America the majority of the time was in Honduras, with a little less than 6 months in Guatemala in 2001-2002, where I was involved in 2 or 3 volunteer efforts. Beginning around 2005 my wife and I developed a children’s charity project in a small, rural village in Honduras, and opened in May 2007, a place where kids could come and have wholesome fun- arts and crafts, story-time, play and sports- and receive breakfast, lunch, and snacks; it proved to be very successful. Living in a village as the rare gringos contrasts to what is called living as an expat, a perfectly fine life choice but it tends to keep one insulated among fellow English speaking expats with limited exposure to the culture and people. Many expats don’t have the need to learn other than basic Spanish, but we had to become pretty functional in Spanish in order to do what we did.
Ron Sparkman
In 1994 Bill Clinton signed NAFTA and a mass exodus of impoverished Mexicans began. Many, if not most fled Mexico for financial reasons we caused. Peasant Mexican farmers could not compete with subsidized grains from American Farmers. We gave them no choice, immigrate or starve. On average these were hard working and ethical people. Most of those immigrants have assimilated, learned English, became excellent employees or entrepreneurs.
That’s not the case with present day immigrants from Central America, ethics and work habits are not comparable. Are there decent hard workers from Central America, of course their are, but they are the exception and unless we invent a way to differentiate those who exemplify high morals and ethics from the masses who grew up in a morally bankrupt culture the only logical conclusion is to send them back to their home country.
I really don’t understand why we play a wait and see game for those who break our laws. You do so the way Eisenhower did, cancel their green cards, crack down on those who hire illegal workers. They will self deport by making it virtually impossible to support themselves.
John Mathieu
If entropy gives a true picture of our universe, then a civil civilization must be something of a miracle. Therefore, what can produce such a miracle, but a system in which men and women take responsibility for their lives and believe that their betterment is somehow tied up with the betterment of others. This involves stable homes or families with a father and mother, with children who are trained to love and respect their parents and others and who have a clear understanding that we are placed on this earth to work, to produce, to share and to treat one another with a well-founded sense of fairness. Obviously, such a world would be a perfect one; one in which we do not live, but what force, what incentive, what teaching can produce such a civilization? I think that I know!
John Mathieu
I agree
Worth Worden
Well as usual another great article filled with different perspectives. Just for the record i would accept your opinion in higher regard than some smug over educated fool without a lick of common sense.
Carole Ann Milljour
Really great in-depth article as per usual, Reid. I’m so thrilled that you have so many followers. I am certain more people read your articles then respond, but responding is a great encouragement for you and one I know you value greatly! So nice reading everyone’s comments.
No one really knows for sure at this point what President Trump will end up doing to deal with the millions of illegals that have entered, but I am sure he has a well thought out plan through his collaboration of the conservatives/republicans he’s nominated for his cabinet. No world is ever going to be perfect and no one ever is or will be either. We just have to try to incorporate a means of dealing with this tragic and overwhelming (to say the least) issue and now it seems we have the means!
I’ve heard all sorts of input from various outlets on what he should or should not do, but it is in the making and I’m sure it will, firstly, be dealing with the criminals that are and have been entering our country. I did hear from some source (can’t recall off hand) that whoever he is putting in charge of the FBI will eliminate the need for so many agents in house, by sending them out to police the country in an effort to arrest them and hopefully, maintain some order thru policing! Sounds good to me!
I tend to think that those who are honest and hard working, should be allowed to enter our system legally and become citizens. No one can ever know who is good or bad unless we give them a chance to prove themselves. We should not be helping them financially by government funding, but encouraging anyone who decides to make their homes here self reliant. That would be a project and a half to determine how to proceed on that prospect; however, my philosophy is, if there is a will, there is a way! ...and I do like your idea, Reid, of allowing them so much time to get on their feet and prove themselves from there.
I’m just thrilled that something will occur to change our dire situation regarding illegal entry. We not only have it on our southern border, but on our northern one as well; and I don’t live very far from that one ...15 miles maybe! It is scary and hopefully, something will eventually be done to turn the tide.
With all the unborn who have been crucified in the womb, we are probably in great need of a future of young adults trained to take on various roles. There are so many jobs out there that are not being filled (as well as volunteer positions) because people don’t want to work; and government has been allowing it. Somewhere in our Constitution it does state that individuals should be self-reliant. What ever happened to that idea? I guess when Lyndon Johnson was in office and created the “Nanny State” he certainly did lead that path to that way of life. So many never get off those rolls. I worked for the Dept. of Labor years ago and we had so many come in to take advantage of the WIN Program at that time (this was in the early to mid 70s, and they would be set up with training for a career, given all types of tools to aid their studies and, of course most ended up just dropping out. We had one gal come in periodically and every time she met with one of our counselors, she had a different leather coat/jacket on and was dressed to the hilt, hair and make up included, of course. Wonder what she did on the side? Nevertheless, she got government welfare funds to boot! We had one gentleman come in every month for a check to cover the living expenses for his 9 to 10 children and when he came in, he was always drunk! Nothing we could do about it, just had to release the check. Made no sense to me, but that’s the way the system, at that time worked! No accountability?!!!!!
So, we can only hope that in a not so perfect world, we have individuals who will take their rolls seriously and act with integrity. There always needs to be a system of checks and balances to assure we are at least doing the best we can with what we have.
I really foresee things improving greatly. There will be mistakes, we always make them, but if we learn and make the ultimate effort, we can see positive changes. It will take awhile, but at least now we have the opportunity to do something. The left never cared enough, or at all; just talked, talked, talked and spent, spent, spent and here we are in 35 trillion plus in dept with no where to go but downhill. Thank you Biden, Obama, Clintons, etc., etc., etc. for nothing but headaches, lots of grief and sadness as well as loads of lost potential! We will take back and build back now that we have the chance! Thank you God for helping us finally secure an honest election! We prayed for that one and we won! God Bless America and all those who have fought hard, worked hard and prayed hard! Finally, we now have an opportunity to secure a far better future for this great nation! One nation under God! Smile, we certainly are loved!