NYT: At Fore on Immigration, Senator Salazar Has a Story to Tell

At Fore on Immigration, Senator Has a Story to Tell
By KIRK JOHNSON
Published: June 11, 2006


(Kevin Moloney for the New York Times)
Senator Ken Salazar addressed delegates at an American Farm Bureau event.

...."The story of Hispanics in America has not been told," Mr. Salazar said in a recent interview in his office here. "My election and my profile in the U.S. Senate is an opportunity to tell that story."...

***

The story he tells, with greater frequency and gusto these days, to groups all over the country and especially among Hispanics, is about power.

"There is a historic aspect to my election from Colorado to the United States Senate, because I became the first Mexican-American in the history of our country to ever be elected outside the state of New Mexico," Mr. Salazar said. "If I can do it in Colorado, it can be done in other places, whether that's California or Texas or Florida."

The future of Hispanic America and the national debate over immigration, with its focus on Mexicans working illegally in the United States, are bound together. And they are now bound with Mr. Salazar, a 51-year-old Democrat who in just 17 months in office has become a Senate leader on overhauling immigration laws and an outreach specialist to Hispanic voters for the Democratic Party.

Shortly after his election in 2004, Mr. Salazar was asked by senior senators to help lead the immigration effort. Mr. Salazar said he believed that it was mainly his record here in Colorado as a moderate coalition builder, in addition to his ethnicity, that made him an appealing ally. In any case, the higher profile that came with that leadership role, he said, has given him a platform to speak out and tell the Hispanic story as never before....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/us/11salazar.html

story. What I see the Mexican immigration problem amounting to is can we afford millions more immigrants? From what I see the mex. immigrants are taking over the labor jobs that kept American middle class able to afford the American way. Now that those jobs are going to the lowest bidder that means that Unions are meaningless, wages are rock bottom for American laborers like home building, highway, factories, etc. The borders Must be closed before we become Mexico.

Mexico has many things going for it yet it's govt. depends on us to save them by pumping up their economy with our dollars. Someone mentioned yesterday that some of the money being earned in the U.S. was pumping $$ into small Mexican towns for improvements. That is nice, but, why isn't Fox doing it for his country. They are draining us and we will be the losers.