Good fences make good neighbors, sometimes

Re “Border Plan Seen as U.S. Conceit,” Feb. 26

Granted, the goal of the proposed 700-mile barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border is not exactly the same as was the purpose of the former Berlin Wall. This wall is meant to keep people out; that wall was meant to keep people in.

However, that differentiation does not make it an acceptable plan.

If Americans are serious about keeping illegal undocumented workers from crossing the border, we need to pass fair legislation that would allow for importing the labor our economy requires and then seriously prosecute all Americans who hire illegal workers.

It is hard to believe our forefathers ever envisioned a nation of walls. It seems the time has come to decide whether we will be a land of fencing, sensors and hypocritical labor laws, or if we will strive to preserve our country as “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

KRIS KLINE

Tampa, Fla.

The writer is coauthor of “Estados Unidos/United States.”

*

The article says, “El muro [the wall] is seen as an ominous new symbol of the United States’ unchecked power.”

How dare the U.S. try to slow the illegal alien invasion through border control?

LAURENCE SPLICHAL

Valley Village

*

I presume, as this story’s headline says, “Across Latin America, people are dismayed” at the thought of a 700-mile wall, because it will make it harder for them to break the laws of my country.

Furthermore, why would I care a whit about the opinion of a bunch of foreign lawbreakers anyway?

DOUGLAS LYON

Claremont