Thread: Texas Mayors Will Talk Immigration With President

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Mayors Will Talk Immigration With President

Aug 2, 2006 08:11 PM PDT

Reported by Ray Pedraza

A group of south Texas mayors plan to share their own ideas on immigration reform and border security Thursday with President Bush.

One of the things McAllen Mayor Richard Cortez says he will tell President Bush is that while money is being spent to secure the border between the ports of entry, not enough is being invested in the ports of entry themselves.

In an afternoon press conference, Cortez told the press three critical issues confronting us are the need for added technology at the ports, additional personnel and basic infrastructure to facilitate traffic.

They are improvements Cortez believes are needed to increase trade but feels are currently being ignored by some members of Congress.

"And originally when the idea of government regulation in this area was that whatever we implement shouldn't harm the local economy," said Cortez. "Well the question is who are they going to ask whether they're hurting or not, it would seem to be us that depends on this border economy."

The second topic Cortez says he will focus on is immigration. He says too much is being debated on illegal immigration and not enough on legal immigration.

He says not all undocumented aliens are bad for America and believes importing foreign labor is necessary.

"And statistically we're going to find that as we continue to go into the future, we're going to be short in labor so somewhere this immigration comprehensive plan that our President and Congress are talking about has to consider how do we import foreign labor to help our businesses grow because businesses can't grow without labor and you can't have a growing economy without a growing labor force," said Cortez.

Cortez and Mission Mayor Beto Salinas are expected to have a brief visit with Mr. Bush.

The President will arrive in McAllen on Air Force One, visit with Homeland Security officials, tour along the Rio Grande and later address the media and 1000 invited guests on immigration reform and border security.

Bush has visited the Valley more than once as governor but this will be the first time he visits as President.

Well we know Bush is going to go visit and listen to those mayors becuase they will tell him what he wants to hear.

Dixie