Immigration bills and politics

Re “Senate Passes Sweeping Bill on Immigration,” May 26

Anyone who believes we have a government of, by and for the people is dreaming. We have a government of, by and for corporate America. The Senate has passed a bill guaranteeing big business an unlimited supply of lower paid workers for years to come. Senators and representatives, wait until November; some big changes are in the wind.

GEORGE TEATS SR.

Downey

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Now that the Senate has passed the immigration bill, all I can say is that senators have sold out all of us for a few more votes. Let’s hope the House of Representatives doesn’t fold also. To our senators who helped pass this legislation: You won’t be getting my vote.

TONY BARONE

Huntington Beach

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Re “House GOP Not Budging on Border,” May 24

If “earned legalization” is a euphemism for amnesty, isn’t “a majority of the majority” a euphemism for filibuster? And wasn’t it the Republicans who expressed such moral outrage at the Democrats for threatening to prevent an up-or-down vote on federal judges by using a filibuster? Which leads to my final question: What is the euphemism for hypocrisy?

RICHARD D. STARK

Rancho Palos Verdes

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I wonder why no pundits or Democrats are pointing out that the Republican insistence on an un-passable immigration bill is intended to benefit employers who are content to pay substandard wages to illegal immigrants who dare not complain. Providing amnesty (an old Reagan accomplishment) would enable illegal immigrants to demand fair wages and working conditions, to the discomfort of the fat cats who seem to rule this country just now.

DAVID M. BEE

Loma Linda

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Re “No border, no problem,” Opinion, May 23

The big point Tim Cavanaugh misses is that in the early 1900s, the U.S. was not a welfare state. Today we have endless government handouts to legal and illegal residents. In times past, these programs did not exist, and the poor from Mexico would leave when their seasonal work was over -- cash in hand. Today, they have no reason to return to their native country with all the free goodies available here. As long as Mexico is a Third World country and Canada and the U.S. are First World countries, there can never be open borders.

BRUCE MCPHERSON

Los Angeles

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“No border, no problem” proclaims the headline of the Op-Ed article by Cavanaugh, Web editor of Reason magazine. By golly: no laws, no criminals! How is that for reasoning?

SHARI GOODMAN

Calabasas