Today, the influences of Mexico and its people continue to cost the State of Texas dearly. Two costly issues are drug trafficking and illegal immigration. In order to understand our need to protect our families and ensure family security, parents must inform themselves about today’s dangers from Mexico related activities.

Drug Wars

Former Mexican President, Vicente Fox has said that “prohibition is not working” and that “violence against violence doesn’t work.” What is America doing? America pumps millions of U.S. dollars into supporting the Mexican military. The current budget proposal calls for pumping another $282 million into the Mexican drug war. With 35,000 people killed in drug related violence in the past four years, drug cartels are stronger and trafficking continues to boom.

Drug cartels have cells actively working on American soil, many of them in Texas. Drug traffickers and gun runners have recently been discovered in Fort Worth, Texas. These violators are living among us and our children, threatening family security.

Mexican military forces have been accused of shocking human rights violations. Drug cartels have infiltrated the police force, according to President Felipe Calderon in his recent meeting with President Obama.

Illegal Immigration

Illegal immigrants from Mexico comprise at least 62% of the 10.8 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. today. The majority of these people have settled in California, Texas and Florida. They have entered illegally or were admitted temporarily and failed to leave when required to do so. Many of these illegals steal social Security Numbers to gain employment. This is called Identity Theft.

In Texas, population growth is principally in San Antonio, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston. These urban school districts are among the institutions being over burdened with the task of educating the children of undocumented immigrants. Some of these students find out too late that their SSN has been used by someone else, perhaps a family member or a mail thief and that they have felony records, often committed when the student himself was only three years old.

These first generation American students from Mexican families must struggle to succeed in school. Their parents cannot help them with schoolwork because they do not know the English language. School districts must hire bilingual teacher in Grades One and Two. These bilingual teachers are paid more than are those who teach only in English. English as a Second Language teachers are also needed.

The Mexican children who enter school at the Third Grade do not have the benefit of bilingual education. These kiddos are at risk from the start.

When we have educated these kids and they find out their SSN has been stolen or they just don’t have and SSN, then they cannot apply to colleges.

Solutions to these problems vary among Texans and U.S. citizens everywhere. One solution I have seen work for the plight of the Spanish speaking children is the work being done by volunteers who go into the schools and teach one on one English reading and writing and conversation to second language learners.

This educational volunteering, however, does not solve the problem of Identity Theft.

Texas continues, after 175 years of independence, to have Mexican influence in every arena. This does not mean that all Mexican immigrants are criminals. Most are not. What it does mean is that families need to be aware of those who jeopardize Americans’ security.

Mail Theft

Mail theft and the resulting identity theft as well as the stealing of social security numbers are factors impacting family security these days. The need to guard against these problems is every growing.

Family security in these times is in jeopardy. Because of the crimes committed by some illegal aliens in the area of identity theft and mail theft, families need to adopt new strategies for keeping safe. One such strategy is to help educate foreign speakers so that they will be able to succeed in academia and not resort to violence and theft because they cannot compete in the job market. Another strategy is to install a so that family identities cannot be stolen by mail thieves. Mail theft is an easy crime to commit. It can devastate families.