Dealing with immigration
As a society, we should not be opposed to immigration. I love this country and the freedoms and the diversity that we enjoy. I welcome those who want the same. I do, however, speak boldly against those who break the laws intended to protect this great nation and then tell us we need to change the very laws that they have broken. They have proven their disrespect by their very presence.
No “asset” to this country breaks our laws or strains our economy by receiving free health care, schooling and welfare programs.
Criminals, by their very definition, are not an asset. How can we trust them to obey any of our other laws? Or should we change them, too? Those entering legally, as did my ancestors, are the assets.
Julie Anne Alexander, Grand Junction
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If I hear one more smug person say, “My ancestors got here legally,” I may throw up. For much of our history, there was no legal or illegal. They just got here the best way they could, and if they had to lie a little or steal a little, they did. After spending everything they owned on the fare and winding up a long way from home, every immigrant to America was a desperate person. Staying was the goal, whatever it took. Don’t think your ancestors were an exception.
Until the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1881, there were no limits placed on immigration. No one was legal or illegal. In 1882, lunatics and those with infectious diseases were excluded, and in 1917 literacy was required. Only after 1921 were there barriers that created the question of legal or illegal for most people.
Karen Dale, Larkspur
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Let’s cool the emotions and look at the immigration problem simply. Almost everyone is opposed to illegal immigration, yet supports legal immigration. So the only real issues are how do we stop the former, and how do we wish to regulate the latter. Stopping illegal immigration is easy: simply enforce the existing laws against hiring illegals. This would stop the problem at its source, no “Berlin” walls required. All that is needed is the political will to enforce existing laws against the employers.
Brian A. Gregg, Golden
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How many foreign illegals fought the Germans and Japanese to keep them out of the United States and maybe Mexico? This country belongs to the servicemen of World War II and the people who supported us. There is no illegal blood on the beaches of Normandy, or the South Pacific islands or in Italy. So where do they come off demanding rights of citizenship and all the benefits of legal Americans?
We shed our blood and lives for these rights. My kid brother lies buried at Normandy. I served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, and I shouldn’t have to share my rights with these lawbreakers.
Joseph Sninchak, Aurora
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I am a second-generation American citizen. My father was monolingual German when he started school in 1930. He went on to make the Army his career, fighting in three wars. The U.S. Army was his life and his means of supporting his family. He was a patriot, soldier, husband and father who did his duty, often in foreign lands. There were many years that my mother, brother, sister and I depended on what he could send us from those postings so that we could pay the bills and stay together. There were years when we lived in foreign countries longing for home and being “good soldiers” as my father did his job.
I believe that, given the choice, most people would stay where they understand and speak the language, know the rules, have friends and families. Need drives us to try to make a better life for those we love, just as my father did and his father did before him. We cross oceans and deserts and borders we never would have dreamed of was there not a deep need to do so. Immigrants built this country and their stories are not so different from mine.
I hope that America can look upon today’s immigrants with compassion for the very human need that brought all of us here: a desire for a better life for those we love.
Danielle M. Hoefer, Longmont
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I can’t see where a one-day walkout and purchasing boycott will accomplish very much. It would be more effective if they did it for a year. They might even consider going to Mexico to exercise all their purchasing power. That should give us a pretty good idea of their impact on this country. It would also solve a lot of our problems.
G. Nance, Montrose
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Why aren’t people discussing long- term solutions to the problem of illegal immigration? According to the CIA WorldFactBook online, ongoing concerns in Mexico include “low real wages, underemployment for a large segment of the population, inequitable income distribution, and few advancement opportunities for the largely Amerindian population in the impoverished southern states.”
What would happen if the U.S. focused on reducing immigration from Mexico by helping Mexico become a place where relatively few would want to leave? With the amount of money that would be needed to forcefully keep Mexicans from coming to the U.S. illegally, a great deal could be done. Wouldn’t everyone be better off if we cooperated with Mexico to improve opportunities for education and employment?
This approach might help improve the lot of the poor in both the U.S. and Mexico.
Nancy Stocker, Denver
TO THE POINT
Federal Heights resident Ted May thinks that “The image of the city has been tarnished” by Mayor Dale Sparks’ moonlighting at a raided strip club. I have to ask: What image? Get over yourself, Ted.
David Hakala, Denver
President Bush is defending the outrageous profits of the oil industry because he trusts it to re-invest its windfalls to expand production capabilities. This is like saying bank robbery is OK as long as the bandits promise to stimulate the economy by spending the money.
Ray Yedinak, Highlands Ranch
The legislature is considering forcing the Public Employees Retirement Association pension plan to curtail its cost-of-living increases. Retired teachers once again will get the short end of the stick. Perhaps PERA should borrow from China, like the federal government does, to reduce its unfunded debt.
Phil and Lee DeLeo, Highlands Ranch
The amount of Internet pedophilia and plain pedophilia in this country is alarming. America’s fascination with these perversions is equally alarming. Do we need a new word, “pedophiliaphilia”?
David Price, Arvada
To paraphrase a bumper sticker notable during the 1970s or so, “All in favor of reducing gasoline prices, raise your foot!”
Gregory Iwan, Denver
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