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 Editorials | February 2008 
Calderon Acknowledges Mexico's Obligations
 San Antonio Express-News
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 |  | We are neighbors, we are friends, and we must be allies.
- President Felipe Calderón |  | | | |
Illegal immigration is the object of furious debate but little action. The problem was not created in a vacuum, and it will not be resolved in one.
And it cannot be addressed, much less resolved, until both countries realize that it is not a problem, but their problem.
Mexican President Felipe Calderón understands that symbiotic relationship, that connectedness, and he outlined a program that should strengthen it.
Calderón, who recently toured the United States to support immigration reform legislation in Congress, discussed a program that should go a long way toward stemming the tide of illegal immigration.
In an attempt to grow the economy, he outlined a plan for the Mexican government and private companies to invest $46.4 billion annually for the construction of highways, ports and airports during the next four years, according to Bloomberg.com.
"It's possible to transform Mexico from a nation that loses its best people to migration into a nation capable of generating opportunity for Mexicans on their own soil," he said during a speech at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, where he earned a degree in public administration.
Calderón provided few details. But the proposal, which he announced last year, is reminiscent of the Works Project Administration, a program engineered by one of his U.S. counterparts — Franklin Roosevelt. It would be premature, and perhaps foolhardy, to expect the same kind of success from this program, but at least Calderón is thinking big.
"We are neighbors, we are friends, and we must be allies," he said.
Calderón has bold ideas; now he must act on them.
The same is true of the politicians on this side of the border.
With an estimated 12 million undocumented workers in this country, Congress must enact comprehensive immigration reform to reduce the flood of immigrants — and to provide a reasonable and compassionate path to citizenship for those already here. |
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