[AUDIENCE]: Yes, my name's David Grossberg, and I'd like to know. Do you think the children of illegal aliens should be allowed to attend Texas public schools free, or do you think that their parents should pay for their education? [BUSH]: Who are you addressing that to?
[MODERATOR SMITH]: I think you're first in this (uh) ... [REAGAN]: He's looking right at you.
[BUSH]: I'd say that he was. [MODERATOR SMITH]: (laughs). [BUSH]: Look, I'd like to see something done about the illegal alien problem that would be so sensitive and so understanding about labor needs, and human needs, that that problem wouldn't come up, but today, if those people are here, (err) I (would reluctantly say, I) think (they would) they would get whatever it (is that they're, you know what) the society is giving to their neighbors, but (it has) the problem has to be solved. The problem has to be solved because, with, as we had (kind of) made illegal some kinds of labor that I'd like to see legal, we're doing two things. [Firstly,] we're creating a whole society of really honorable, decent, family-loving people that are in violation of the law, and secondly, we're exacerbating relations with Mexico. (inaudible) The answer [to] your question is much more fundamental than whether they attend Houston schools, it seems to me. I (don't want to see a whole, if they're living here, I) don't want to see a whole thing of six and eight year-old kids being made (you know, one) totally uneducated, and made to feel that they're living with outside the law. Let's address ourselves to the fundamentals. These are good people, strong people. [A] part of my family is a Mexican. (inaudible) [REAGAN]: Can I answer, David? I think the time has come that the United States and our neighbors, particularly our neighbor to the south, should have a better understanding and a better relationship than we've ever had, and I think (but) we haven't been sensitive enough to our size and our power. They have a problem of forty to fifty percent unemployment. Now, this cannot continue without the possibility arising, with regard to that other country that we [have] talked about (of Cuba) and what it is stirring up, (of the possibility) of trouble below the border, and we could have a very hostile and strange neighbor on our border. Rather than making them, or talking [them] about putting up a fence, Why don't we work out some recognition of our mutual problems, make it possible for them to come here legally with a work permit, and then while they're working and earning here, they pay taxes here, and when (they go) they wanted to go back, they can go back, and they can cross and open the border both ways? By understanding their problems (this is the only safety valve right now [that] they have (with that unemployment) that probably keeps the lid from blowing off down there and), I think we could have a friend, a fine relationship, and it would solve the problem you mentioned also. [AUDIENCE]: (faint applause)
