Build Bridges, Not Walls!

Let immigrants come in droves from all over the world. They are the foundation stones of our great country and bring new energy and vitality.

To give my stance a little background, Annie and I live in “the safest city in America”—Irvine, California, which is a planned city with 310,000 residents that swells to over 700,000 during the workweek.

We live in a low-income housing mobile-home park. We are within a ten-mile radius of the University of California, Irvine, great shopping centers, world-class medical facilities, a top public school system, and state-of-the-art recreational opportunities. Everything this city does is top-notch.

Within the past year, the city has reverted from citywide voting for our city council to voting at large for the mayor, but then voting for one candidate within one of the six districts, resulting in much better representation on the city council.

Voting District 5 is surrounded by the University of California, Irvine, one of the top universities in our country, comprised of students, professors, researchers, and many longtime residents. This district had five candidates for city council. Three were viable, while two seemed as if they only wanted to put their names out there.

One of these candidates was Betty Martinez Franco, a demure Hispanic woman who had no previous experience in running for any office. She was running against some professionals. But that didn’t deter Betty. She ran a door-to-door, meet-the-people campaign. It worked.

Betty was sworn in as a city council member on May 13, 2025. She is the first Latina and Mexican immigrant to serve on our city council, even though Irvine doesn’t have a large Latino population.

She was born in Mexico and immigrated to the United States in her twenties, and for a few years, she picked apples in Washington state. She then moved to Anaheim to clean hotel rooms. She received a green card, which allowed her to enroll in a community college. After community college, she went to California State University, Fullerton, received her bachelor’s degree in communications, and became interested in public relations.

Unfortunately, she married into an abusive relationship and spent time with her two daughters in a women’s shelter. The staff at the shelter was able to find a place for them in Irvine, and with federal housing and food program assistance, she could rent her own place. The COVID-19 pandemic slowed her down, but not by much. She then received her master’s degree in public administration from the University of Southern California.

Since then, she’s worked in programs and initiatives advocating for economic development, especially for those living in Orange County’s low-income, diverse communities.

Twenty-four years ago, Betty moved to Irvine, knowing that it had some of the best educational and recreational activities for her children in all of California. She says that her election will allow her to bring a different diversity to our great city that supports people like Betty who come to America to be all they can be. And I have only touched a tiny part of Betty’s life story in this blog post. Her story is the American dream and the power of welcoming immigrants.

It’s painful to watch the present administration reject so many immigrants, who have made great sacrifices to arrive at our border only to get labeled with awful names. And now they have to return to countries that may execute them or throw them in prisons with no keys.

Walls represent the demise of our democracy. Bridges open the gates upon which strong democracies are built.

Let’s fight for bridges and destroy walls.

PeaceLoveJoyHopeKindness

Bil

Get my book at Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon!

P.S. People often ask me provocative questions about current events, both religious and secular. I have found that some of these questions are being asked universally. I’ll be periodically alternating regular articles with one of those questions and my answer. I invite you to send me your question to bilaulenbach@yahoo.com.

 

Photo by Cody Hiscox on Unsplash