The Immigration Bill

People in Northern San Diego county who watched Sen. Mel Martinez (R) of Florida, Senior Kyl (R) of Arizona and others who worked long and hard to find difficult answers to better border security, better law enforcement and genuine pro-family humanitarianism might be ashamed of two simplistic, smirking easy riders who represent this area in the US Congress.

I had a Scout troop in Hereford, TX, for many years with half Latino and half Anglo members among the 70-plus boys in the troop over those years of the ’60s. Our area was at the time a large vegetable growing area, and I also served as Chairman of the Migrant Ministry in my county. While I did my own work on my wheat farm, I was very aware of the hard work Latinos did in the fields of produce.

We lost five young men from that county of 15,000 in the Vietnam War. Four were Latinos.

While commanding an artillery battery in 1957 in the 4th Infantry Division of the US Army 50-plus years ago, I was blessed by the Latino and African American soldiers under my command. So the least I can do as a California of the past 11 years working with Athletes in Action is continue to speak out on the issues.

Jesse Frank Ford