The US with its similar immigration crises with Mexicans have far more people than you realize who empathize with this country on the issue of addressing illegal immigration. If the world press does their job in reporting the news and not peddling opinion, and/or as long as The Bahamas continues to respond to these articles with facts, the country will be just fine.

Yes, what is printed in the media is a part of the PR process. Journalists however, are not PR professionals. How a press release is worded or the word choice of the speaker is secondary to the additional research and follow-up that should go into producing a well balanced article. A journalist's own opinion should not shine through in an article and I see that a lot.

I cannot speak to "all the press and all the watchdog groups" as even though I have read many articles on this issue, I have not read "all" articles and not all watchdog groups have weighed in. Watchdog groups have not come to the defense of the Bahamas, nor have they followed up on these causes after the minister addressed them. If they simply abandon issues of concern once it falls out of the media spotlight, that shows no conviction or that they later come to the realization that they are responding to false alarms. Hence, it is important for the media to be balanced as these organizations tend to holler first, investigate later.

Have you ever thought that the so called watchdog groups may have it wrong? To stay relevant they need to constantly look for a cause even when they do not have all the facts. Even in ignorance of the facts. However, it is their jobs to be bleeding hearts, and it is the job of the government to address issues of national concern. I am hard pressed to believe that government is wrong in accounting for who is in the country by whatever means available. It is the responsibility of the media to at least lay out both sides. If you read the New York Times article, and articles in The Guardian today and yesterday, the media is clearly being biased. That is not showing journalistic integrity, that is trying to set the agenda and lead thoughts.

People are really running with this "concern" that the Bahamas will wind up a wasteland of frustrated and uneducated individuals. With no opportunities to speak of, you can have a masters degree, 10 BGCSEs, or nothing at all, and still live in the slums and engage in the social ills that come with having no opportunities. The government deserves to have a record of who is in our schools, and if illegal immigrants want to respond by pulling their kids out of school, that is their choice. Otherwise, I have seen or heard nothing to indicate that these children will be denied an education.

While Fred Mitchell has clearly stated where the policy lies within the context of international laws and The Bahamas obligation to educate all children in the country, many of you detractors are going off about laws being broken but have not pointed out where? The government should be held to task wherever the law is violated. I simply do not see where that is taking place.

Is someone trying to deport Haitian/Bahamian offspring? if the Bahamian parent is lax in getting their own children registered as Bahamians, then it is their mess to clean up. Where is the responsibility on the part of the parents, either the Bahamian or the Haitian in your scenario? Comments like yours serve as a distraction to any solution because you are throwing in atypical scenarios as if it were the standard. Interjecting beliefs that have not been expressed in this pending policy is exactly why illegal immigrants are able to continue to lay low and circumvent responsibility for their actions. The Bahamas is not even in a place economically to deport all illegals, and the children will continue to go to school in the meantime. I see nothing wrong with attempting to account for who is in the country.

The response needs to be aggressive all around. So many are up in arms about the so-called plight of these children that these parents made the decision to have, knowing the precarious nature of their situation. The children will continue to go to school as long as they are here, but the school registration process is a good means of documenting the numbers and I support the government's right to do so.

We won't know until it is tried.

It is no wonder that time and again The Bahamas finds itself back to the same point of sitting in silence and being unable to resolve the illegal immigration crisis. Anytime a possible solution is presented, emotions and those with vested interests, do their best to beat down policies intended to curb the situation. It will take strong policies to correct the problem that has ballooned way out of control. That is a fact. I hope the Ministry of Immigration follows through on this. If not, when the country finally busts at the seams, I hope that as defenders of illegal immigration that you too, will be passionately defended to the detriment of native citizens in your host countries.