Sounding off about immigration: three Americans who have extensive experience with our country's immigration system interject personal perspective into the immigration debate.(IMMIGRATION)(Ezola Foster, Krzysztof L. Nowak, Sr., Tan Nguyen)

Ezola Foster

Ezola Foster was a leader in the fight to pass Proposition 187 in California in 1994, which would have banned public assistance to illegal aliens. She is also a retired teacher who ran as the vice-presidential candidate for the Reform Party in 2000.

While she was in education, Mrs. Foster taught varied courses--such as government, civics, business law, English, and reading--and was a school administrator at an inner city school in Los Angeles near the once-infamous Watts Jordan Downs housing project. When she was transferred to a school with a student body primarily composed of the children of illegal immigrants, she saw the disparities created by catering to illegals: for the illegals, the school waived the requirement to provide a birth certificate and have up-to-date immunizations (the school gave the illegals free immunizations); free college scholarships went to many illegals, and the rest were allowed to pay in-state college tuition rates; the school diverted funding to teach in the immigrants' native languages (while at the same time taking services from American children); overcrowding occurred, putting a burden on taxpayers; and teachers who could speak a second language (mainly Spanish) got higher pay than those who couldn't.

She strongly advocates controlled immigration because she sees present immigration policies fracturing the country, tearing apart the constitutional governance the U.S. relies on. She says, "Most illegal immigrants (especially those from Mexico) want laws to accommodate 'their race'--La Raza. They don't want to learn English; they're not interested in becoming American. And why should they? They see America's elected officials, from the White House to their local town councils, favoring non-citizens over American citizens. It is a sad day in America that lawmakers are siding with lawbreakers over law-abiding citizens. Sadder still is seeing America go from a nation of laws protecting individual freedoms to a nation of rules based on group rights."

In place of unfettered immigration, she would like to see our immigration laws enforced (health and economic screenings); immigration preferences for English speakers; and election laws that ensure only citizens vote, using English-only ballots.

Proposition 187, which she worked hard to promote, was passed handily by voters, but a federal judge voided it, and a former California governor, Gray Davis, stopped the judicial decision from being appealed to the Supreme Court. But Mrs. Foster is not discouraged. She says that this is an important fight, and it will be a long fight, but "only if you give up are you assured of not winning."

Krzysztof L. Nowak, Sr.