Let's face it, getting legislation passed benefiting the immigrant community is challenging. And with our previous governor, it was all the more difficult. But the times have changed at the Horseshoe, and Asm. Gil Cedillo isn't giving up on his efforts.
Cedillo's bills would apply to undocumented immigrants who have attended California high schools, adult schools or technical schools for three years or more, graduated or attained an equivalent degree from them, and filed an application to legalize their status.
The two bills, Assembly Bills 130 and 131, would benefit the "best and brightest" of undocumented immigrants, who came to the United States as children through no choice of their own and embraced the English language and culture -- and performed well in state schools, Cedillo said.(SacBee)
Given the demographic shifts of California, we are going to need all the well-educated workers that we can get. That is where our economy is moving, and we just can't be turning away hard-working and successful young students because their parents did something wrong when they were children.
Certainly we can all agree that we need to work to improve the Latin American economy so that we can reduce the number of undocumented immigrants. However, at the same time, we shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. If we have educated workers here, now, let's put them to work in growing our economy. |
