Citizens first
Naturalized citizen Steinar Andersen wants a guest-worker program for “12 million illegal immigrants” (“Frustration of a legal immigrant,” Commentary, May 2). He says it’s impossible to deport them all.
If they could all be made guest workers, how about if we just create a “guest worker” program for 12 million of the current U.S. citizens who are involuntarily not working, or working part-time when they want to work full-time? We need a new WPA to enable them to spend, say, one year earning a good living at what they know they’re good at. We need to hold employers accountable for putting U.S. citizens first. Right now, swamped by the clamor of support for illegal aliens, these U.S. citizens are being made to feel like throwaways in their own country. Even their own elected representatives in government are sending this message.
— Jean SmilingCoyote, Chicago
Hail the immigrants
I am writing in support of Steinar Andersen’s frustrations. I am so glad and proud of someone who, being a legal immigrant and U.S. citizen, just like me and thousands of other Lithuanians, Mr. Andersen, a Norwegian, expressed his frustration at the media for not being praised as good and diligent people. We all, like Mr. Andersen, should be shouting loud and clear about our good deeds and achievements for this country.
— Gintra Naris, Darien
Right on
Steinar Andersen’s letter was right on. Why should he and other legal immigrants face years of effort to become citizens? Let’s open our borders to everyone. We’ve already opened them to Mexicans who walk across and then are allowed to stay. Why should they get preference over Norwegians like Mr. Andersen? If Mexicans get a free ride, so should everyone who wants to come here.
— Mona Stern, Gary, Ind.
Keep debate alive
Immigration reform is one of the most important issues of our time. Thank you for reporting both sides of this issue. Keep the amnesty — pro or con — debate alive until Congress and the Obama administration enact comprehensive immigration reform laws.
Pro-amnesty groups may be pressuring you to silence the voice of millions of American citizens by limiting or failing to cover both sides of this debate. I am not a racist. I am a law-abiding citizen, proud of my European heritage and the legal process my grandparents took to settle in this country. I applaud the voice of Steinar Andersen and others like him. We need and are seeking comprehensive federal immigration reform. I applaud Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer for pushing this debate to a new level. I cherish living in a nation where our First Amendment rights allow Americans to hear all sides of all issues.
— Chris Conroy, Wheaton
Illegal is illegal
There are few people in this country who do not care deeply about the condition of life and living not only in the United States, but all over the world.
Illegal is just that. It is not an immigrant issue. If you choose to cross the border without papers, that’s illegal. If you choose to drive without a license, that’s illegal. If you choose to do something illegal, then you have chosen to put your family at risk of being without a mother, father, income and security.
If you want to change illegal to legal, then work for it. Participate in it, advocate it, and vote for it — make it law, not amnesty.
— Janice B. Dodson, Gurnee
Feel like chumps
I have been gratified to see several letters written to support the state of Arizona it its efforts to protect itself from people who have no right to be there. I thought I was the only person who doesn’t think it is OK for 11 or 12 million people to be here who came into our country illegally. Sure, they have families, so do I. Sure, they want to work, so do thousands of legal citizens. Sure, they want good medical care, so do all of us.
Some are trying to make citizens feel guilty about wanting to secure our borders and keep out the illegals. It is so very insulting to those people who came here and went through the legal process to become citizens. Many of those people stood in long lines and waited for years to become naturalized citizens. They probably feel like chumps now for following the law and waiting their turn.
I wonder how Canada would like it if the U.S. started sending thousands of people there because the American government didn’t want the responsibility of caring for them. World opinion might take a dim view of us if we shifted our problems to our northern neighbor. It is time for Mexico to take care of its own people, and not expect the U.S. to absorb the thousands that Mexico doesn’t want. For the president of Mexico to express outrage over Arizona’s law is in itself an outrage.
I don’t feel guilty for wanting to stop illegal immigration. Congress needs to firm up our borders now.
— Elizabeth Miller, Willowbrook
Punish employers
The best way to cut the flow of illegal immigrants into this country is to go after the companies that hire them. Without jobs, there’s no reason for them to come here. Unfortunately, American corporations have largely gotten a pass on this issue for decades.
Legalized harassment, such as in Arizona, is the wrong answer as it turns people of color into second-class citizens who are required to “show their papers” in a way that we whites are not.
A perfectly sealed border is economically and logistically impossible. A tighter border also has the unintended consequence of illegals choosing to stay here rather than go home and risk another border crossing.
Unfortunately, this is an election year, which means Congress is more likely to engage in posturing and politics instead of immigration reform that we clearly need.
If Congress fails to act, then more illegals will wind up dying in the desert, taking American jobs, suffering mistreatment at the hands of American companies and this country will go another year without solving this problem.
— Mike Mosser, Chicago
Pay medical bills
In the past few weeks we have witnessed protest marches by immigrants, illegal aliens and the good Samaritans who are so compassionate for these persons who are knowingly in our country illegally. These illegals are criminals, they deserve to be in jail. Guess what they do to illegals in Mexico? They are jailed. They also get to crowd our hospital emergency rooms. This is a financial burden to our government’s social programs. Therefore for all these bleeding hearts who want the illegals to stay here, lets have them pledge to pay all hospital expenses from their own pocket. This will save us taxpayers millions, if not billions, of dollars that our country is losing every year.
— Wayne W. Drust, Chicago
Protest in Mexico
I think the Mexican people should be protesting and protesting vigorously. They deserve good jobs, a chance at a good education, access to affordable health care, an expectation of living without fear of violence and representation in government without all the corruption.
The thing they are doing wrong is protesting in the wrong place. They should be protesting in Mexico. The real problem is that their home country does not provide the things they need and deserve. They should fix things at home first before they try to come here and try to change America.
America does not have a problem with Illegal immigration, but rather Mexico and Central America have a problem with a lack of opportunities in their own countries.
— Louis J. Berardi, Downers Grove
We’re all immigrants
I find it depressing to read about the tactics the legislature of Arizona plans to employ to deal with “alien intruders.” They are outrageous, not just because the measures are stridently un-American in their tone, and sure to invite abuses. The tactics proposed are outrageous largely based on the manner in which the current batch of “alien intruders” acquired the territory subsequently named Arizona. “Appropriated” is such a genteel word. “Annexed” doesn’t really give the correct flavor. “Taken by force” is more like it, to describe how the United States came into possession of the state we now call Arizona. Force that took lives … Mexican lives. Note to Arizonans: We are all immigrants here. Kick yourselves out.
— Sean Rumbaugh, Chicago
Stop the insanity
Sorry to all those concerned about racial profiling, but it’s time to get over the “political correctness” and stop the insanity. Countless nationalities of immigrants have come to America and assimilated into this great country. The majority of all our ancestors have come here, not known the language, but they learned it, studied, became citizens, got jobs and their own health care.
And guess what? They were glad to do it! And it worked and we became a great nation. Now that this has broken down and we’ve become lax and not wanting to offend anyone, look at what we have. Do you really see this nation being able to go forward like this? Do you really see us, your children, prospering in a welfare socialistic state?
— Eileen Vrachan, Plainfield
