Preface: My father-in-law had a Mexican-American mother, a Mexican father and spent much of his childhood in Mexico City. As such we are neither racists nor xenophobes, who strongly support Initiative 1122, which among other things will make it illegal to provide driver’s licenses and public benefits for illegal immigrants, as is the case in 48 of the other 49 states.

The recent Soccer Gold Cup finals in Pasadena, Calif., is a perfect example of why most of the 20 million illegal immigrants, including the Canadians, should return to their native countries.

Eighty thousand of the 93,000 attendees where cheering for Mexico and booing the American team. While I am proud of all our national teams, I respect all countrymen who cheer for their teams, whether they are Japanese, Russian or Mexican. The crowd’s support for Mexico made it perfectly clear these were not Mexican-American immigrants, but illegal aliens who are only present for the education, health care and money, much of which is sent to Mexico, rather than being spent in America. 

They love Mexico, which I respect, and that is exactly where they should live.

America is a country of immigrants, which continues to need the one million immigrants (including 600,000 from Mexico) who legally enter each year. At the same time, illegal immigrants drive down the wages in many trades, especially construction, where it is hard for contractors to compete and pay a living wage when many use the cheap labor offered by these workers.

Our failure to totally close our southern border and deport all illegals facilitates the corrupt government of Mexico. If the millions of low-income Mexicans were forced to stay in Mexico, without the benefit of the billions which are sent each year from America, the Mexican population would ultimately revolt and demand the opportunity to share in the wealth of this resource-rich country.  

— Scott Harvey