Mexican Immigration Laws

I received this e-mail recently:

Wow!!!! we need these laws!

1. There will be no special bilingual programs in the schools.
2. All ballots will be in this nation's language.
3. All government business will be conducted in our language.
4. Non-residents will NOT have the right to vote no matter how long they are here.
5. Non-citizens will NEVER be able to hold political office.
6. Foreigners will not be a burden to the taxpayers. No welfare, no food stamps, no health care, or other government assistance programs. Any burden will be deported.
7. Foreigners can invest in this country, but it must be an amount at least equal to 40,000 times the daily minimum wage.
8. If foreigners come here and buy land... options will be restricted. Certain parcels including waterfront property are reserved for citizens naturally born into this country.
9. Foreigners may have no protests; no demonstrations, no waving of a foreign flag, no political organizing, no bad-mouthing our president or his policies. These will lead to deportation.
10. If you do come to this country illegally, you will be actively hunted, when caught, sent to jail until your deportation can be arranged. All assets will be taken from you..

Harsh, you say?.......




The above laws are current immigration laws of MEXICO

I have some observations:

1. We Americans don't really want to be like Mexico. There's a reason why illegal immigration goes one way. Who wants to go to Mexico when they can live in the US?
2. Mexico doesn't have an influx of non-Spanish speaking immigrants. This is because of #1 above. It's easier to make laws like this when your citizens and immigrants all speak Spanish anyway. We have plenty of LEGAL immigrants whose first language is Spanish. They should strive to learn English. In the meantime, they also need to understand our laws until they get a firmer understanding of the language. Therefore, it's helpful to convey the laws in other languages so everyone is clear on them.
3. Smart people learn multiple languages. Lazy people don't. If we have this attitude, we are asking immigrants to be smarter than our lazy selves. I'm humbled when I travel to other countries to note how many people know English as well as their own language. In many places people typically speak multiple languages. Most of us don't know English very well and many Americans have such a spirit of personal anti-intellectualism that they don't want to improve their minds and they vilify those who do. If most people around the world are polyglottal and most Americans can't even get English right, what does that say about us? Perhaps we need more special foreign language classes in school - not to appease immigrants, but to educate those born in this country.
4. If traffic laws and corruption are any indication, Mexico doesn't enforce their laws very well. This makes the laws above moot. Maybe that's why Mexico has their own illegal immigration problem.
5. The United States actually does have good immigration laws. We just don't enforce them very well.
6. If you are a native American who wishes immigrants to learn English and be more like you, what are you personally doing (besides whining about it) to help enculturate the immigrants you know?

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." I Corinthians 13: