immigration (2)

I like Edward James Olmos. As an actor and as an activist he has worked on interesting projects. He did Stand And Deliver, a film about a high school teacher who inspires his working class Latino students beyond everybody's expectations. It's based on a true story too. And he helped produce Americanos, a photo exhibit that shows all sorts of aspects of Latino life in the United States. Any time Mr. Olmos shows up in a small role in a TV-series you know it's going to be interesting. It seems he thinks about what he is doing, and why.
Tonight on Larry King Edward James Olmos was sitting next to Jim Gilchrist, founder of The Minute Men, a nationwide neighborhood watch group that has taken it upon themselves to draw attention to the immigration issue. (And it's fair to say that they have not exactly come out in favor of people crossing the border.)
So there they were, Olmos and Gilchrist, side by side. Larry King had cowboy boots on. Eddie and the other guy wore leather jackets. They were outdoors in the cool California evening, sitting on those high director's chairs. And they were agreeing.
Larry didn't manage to get them to disagree on anything. They both thought Mexico is the root of the problem. They both thought Vicente Fox needs to work things out in his country.
President Bush made a speech tonight. I didn't hear it. No one seemed to have liked it.
Personally I am leaning more and more towards just granting everybody amnesty and have it over with. I don't understand how anyone could administer thousands of people traveling to border posts to file paperwork, wait for it to be processed, and travel back. I have spent some mornings (starting at 6AM) in line at the San Jose INS. That was chaotic enough.
I have learned that people traveling on the roofs of fright trains from Central America and all through Mexico to come here have very little to eat. They bring babies with them, and the babies cry of hunger.
All they want is to escape poverty and make a better life for themselves in the US. When they get here a friend or relative looks after the baby when the mother goes to work at her two or three jobs. All the time they worry about deportation. The children grow up knowing never to tell the entire truth. Something needs to be fixed.