Mayor Mark D. Boughton of Danbury Connecticut at Wabash College

Mayer Mark D. Boughton of Danbury, Connecticut came to Wabash College on November 17th to talk about immigration. He mentioned that Danbury has 49 different languages that are spoken throughout the city. Surprisingly Danbury has the largest concentration of Shiite Muslims and Brazilians in the United States. This is because of the job opportunities Danbury offers.
He also said that 60% of immigrants over stay their visas because they do not want to go back to their home countries because America has so many opportunities. The majority of these immigrants are working low wage jobs so they are unable to own houses by themselves. One of the major problems in the city is over crowding of houses. Sometimes there will be six to eight people living in a 2 person house. Schools are pressured because so many of the students speak very broken English. Medical institutes are also under great pressure because most of the immigrants do not have insurance to pay their medical expenses. They do not go to a family doctor regularly so they use hospitals ER unit to treat their injuries or illnesses; which increases other patients bills because they have to pay for the immigrants who do not pay.
Danbury does not have the man power to round up all of the illegal immigrants that are living in the city. The only way they can find them is when they are pulled over by the police, everyone is scanned into a federal database and if they come up as illegal then they are detained. But for the most part they are released the next day because they post bail.
Another big problem Danbury has is volleyball games played by Ecuadorians. These Ecuadorians gather at people’s houses and there will be 200-300 people in a house that is designed for 4 people and there will be gambling, alcohol and drug use going on. When the party is broken up, the police sit the owners down and discuss the economic values of the living unit and tell them that parties like this deplete the value of the house.
Mayor Boughton said that Obama’s first year plan of immigration laws will not work because there is not enough money to go into the programs he has planned. Boughton has devised a plan to implement immigrants into the United States. He mentioned that immigrants should not be brought in just to work and then sent back to their home country because for the most part they will not want to go back. America should give them amnesty and a reason to stay. He proposed that immigrants who want to stay and become American citizens will have to do 1000 hours of community service over 6 years. This will give them a permanent green card for them to work on getting their citizenship.
I personally believe this plan will work because for the most part immigrants who come to America do not get good jobs and do not have the money to pay the thousands of dollars to pay for citizenship. The community service they will be doing will give them a chance to put their mark in American history.