New Take on Immigration
Friday, Feb 6, 2009 | Updated 10:01 AM PDT
Making life more attractive in Mexico is at the center of one activist's plan to curb illegal immigration.
One political activist in Sacramento believes America is ready for a fresh take on immigration. But are Americans ready to send money to create jobs in Mexico to help resolve the illegal immigration problem here in the U.S.?
Arnoldo Torres is trying to get Congress and the Obama administration to look at his point-by-point, 17-page idea for a "permanent mechanism" to solve illegal immigration, according to a published report.
Torres supports legalization for some undocumented workers over a span of six years but the controversial suggestion that the U.S. fund job growth in Mexico is where some Californians stop listening.
Central to his plan is a U.S.-Mexico partnership to build infrastructure projects and create jobs in rural Mexico to stem the flow of migrants, according to Sacramento Bee writer Susan Ferriss.
Mexican remittances – the billions of dollars that immigrants send home to relatives – could be used to leverage funds from international aid sources, Torres suggested to the paper, including the U.S. Millennium Fund, a pool of U.S. aid.
Torres is working contacts, sending his plan across the country to legislators at the state and national level. He told the Bee that his goal is to meet with congressional staffers to turn the plan into a bill.
