Editor's note: CNN Correspondent Rick Sanchez traveled to Tijuana, Mexico, recently in search of "coyotes," otherwise known as smugglers.I am one of the lucky ones. I am a Hispanic immigrant who doesn't have to look over his shoulder. I am, in a word, LEGAL! I get to stay.
Why? Because of a law passed in the 1960s called the Cuban Adjustment Act, which essentially says that because Fidel Castro is a bad guy, our enemy, and a communist, then people fleeing his country, like me, get to become automatic Americans.
It's a rare law, one of the few where somebody in Washington actually made a decision as to who should stay and why. Say what you want about whether the law may be outdated, but at least at the time it was passed it offered order. And order is something many people think is lacking in our present immigration policy.
There seems to be little willpower in Washington, D.C., to come up with a more consistent immigration policy, so as a result there are too few answers. Who should be allowed in? Who knows? Is there a way to earn a work visa that's worth waiting for? No, not really. Is there a way to quantify our immigration need or a reasonable number we can support? No help there either.
We saw a lot of these vexing issues firsthand on a recent trip to the border town of Tijuana, Mexico, for a piece airing tonight on the show. It is a place where "coyotes," or smugglers, rule. And it is a place where Mexicans cross the border illegally because they can.
So what are we left with? Confusion, which invites chaos, which may be the best way to describe what we saw in Tijuana.
Tell me what you think.