Bill Richardson and His Own Transnational Past

New Mexico Governer Bill Richardson



Would Bill Richardson be responsive to the needs of undocumented immigrants if he were President? He has his own immigration story. He has a unique genealogy. On his father's side he is descended from two passengers on the Mayflower. However, his paternal grandfather worked for a number of museums collecting biological specimens in Latin America - and married a woman from Oaxaca. Richardson's father ran the Citi Bank in Mexico D.F.; his mother was also from the Districto Federal. Like so many other children of immigrants, he was born in the U.S. while his parents still maintained their primary residence in Mexico. Maybe his father thought Bill would run for President one day. Soon after birth he was taken back to Mexico and lived there until he was 13 when he was sent to prep school in Boston.

Will his transnational experiences make him a better president? Judge for yourself.


Below are a couple of Bill Richardson's responses on the new Democratic Mashup on the Huffington Post

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Charlie Rose: All right, let me introduce a user question. This from Claremont, Calif. Minor Collinsworth says, "Will your health-care plan cover illegal aliens in the U.S., and if it will, how will you keep millions more illegal aliens from entering the U.S. in order to take advantage of health care?"

Bill Richardson: Well, you know, today, we're already paying for undocumented workers when they go into emergency rooms. It's the law. Under my plan, what you would do is everybody that pays into the system would be covered. Now, what we need is comprehensive immigration reform, which the Congress and the president refuse to do, which would set the appropriate standards for health care and on immigration, what we need to do is secure the border, we need to--secondly, those that knowingly hire illegal workers should be punished. Third, there has got to be a stronger relationship with Mexico so that they don't send their poor to our country. And lastly, an earned legalization process where you establish those standards. Like, you don't give them amnesty, you don't give them automatic citizenship, but if they learn English, if they pay back taxes, embrace American values, pass a background check, they can stay and eventually apply for citizenship.

..Charlie Rose: Would you change visa policy with respect to people who come here to study and might be willing to stay if they had their visas?

Bill Richardson: Yes. That means H-1B visas, that means looking for workers in this country that we need in certain sectors. This means focusing not just on illegal immigration, but legal immigration. There's a huge backlog of enormously talented people and workers that, because of red tape and bureaucracy, can't get in, especially in the computer sector, especially in health-care areas. Yes, I would. Those H-1B visas, I believe, need to be increased to permit more skilled workers to come into our work force. This enhances our competitiveness...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/09/13/mashup-transcript-bill-r_n_64323.html
photo: http://hospitals.unm.edu/BBRPavilion/Images/GBPhotos/DSCN2073.jpg