Brian Bilbray: “I have had the privilege of actually discussing and negotiating this issue at length with representatives in Mexico of…”

“I have had the privilege of actually discussing and negotiating this issue at length with representatives in Mexico of the Senate and the Congress. Let me tell you, I heard the same arguments in Mexico that I am hearing on the floor right now of excuses not to do the reasonable thing. What is interesting is I do not think any of us think that Mexico is xenophobic or antiimmigrant. But the fact is in Mexico, they have a law that says you must prove you are a legal resident, if you are not a citizen, before you even get into a private school, let alone a public school. So the xenophobic issue, I think, is pretty settled and Mexico agrees it is a reasonable approach. But I ask you, who are the children we are talking about here? I hear people on the floor saying 'our children.' Are they talking about the legal citizen children who are not getting their fair share of education in the States impacted? Or are they talking about 'our children' who are the legal resident aliens, who have played by the rules, who are not getting their fair share of the revenue for their education? Or are they talking about 'our children' as being the illegal aliens in school right now? Because this bill does not affect any of those people. It says if you are illegally here today, you can continue to go to school. It just says that the people who are thinking of coming here to the United States, who are not here now, we will not require a free education to be given to your children.”