Bush, Dems and Mexico can unite on immigration reform

President Bush has not done or said much we have agreed with of late. However, when he said during a press conference in Mexico City on Wednesday that U.S. immigration policies need to be changed, and that doing so would be in the best interests of both Mexico and the United States, he left us nodding in agreement.

This is one issue on which we think the president has been headed along the right track for some time. Unfortunately, he has been periodically derailed by his own party while it was still in control of both houses of Congress. Now, with the Democrats — who have largely always favored more enlightened immigration policies that would make it easier for people to come to this country legally and become citizens — there is a chance something positive will happen.

Addressing Wednesday’s joint press conference with Mexican President Felipe Calderón, Bush said he sensed there had been an attitude change in Congress (perhaps the shift in House and Senate majorities?) with regard to immigration reform, and promised to “work with Congress, members of both political parties, to pass immigration laws that will enable us to respect the rule of law and, at the same time, respect humanity.”

If Bush is successful in achieving the sort of meaningful reform that stems the flow of illegal immigrants, it may be the one thing for which history smiles on his administration.

For his part, Calderón — Mexico’s new Harvard-educated president — pledged to do what he can to improve living and working conditions in Mexico, creating more opportunities for his citizens to make a decent living without having to emigrate, legally or illegally.

We believe that, with both countries and both presidents working together honestly and openly, a solution can be found.

There is no question that illegal immigration is and has been a serious problem — as we in the Rio Grande Valley know all too well — not only for those of us who are U.S. citizens, but also for those who brave the many dangers associated with crossing the border illegally.

Passage by the U. S. Congress of a fair, equitable, sensible and comprehensive immigration reform bill is the only way we will be able to get a grip on the illegal immigration problem.

Although people illegally cross our southern border for lots of reason, the main one is that the United States — despite our declining image in much of the world because of the continuing debacle in Iraq — still is seen by many as the land of opportunity, a place where someone can make a decent wage for putting in an honest day’s work, a place where people are free to speak their mind and exercise their political and religious beliefs.

For more than two centuries, that has been what has drawn immigrants from all over the world to this country. With regard to the immigration across our southern border, it is time we remembered the simple, hopeful inscription on the plaque that adorns the Statue of Liberty, the words that greeted the tide of immigrants who came here through Ellis Island:

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

- The Monitor