Immigration

OK, I’ve been hearing the immigration issue from all sides for a while now. The nationalist bigots claim the need to protect “American culture” and their back yards from squatters. Bleeding-heart activists are saving their “undocumented” friends and families from exploitation, determined to “throw down the wall.” Labor thinks cheap illegal workers undermine decent wages. Immigrants’ rights workers say the economy can’t do without them (but of course we have to pay them a decent wage).

Rarely do we hear from rational leaders with a just plan willing to answer the hard questions: How many immigrants per year can we absorb? What is the quota; by region, by ethnicity, by age, by education . . . who will decide? Do we allow any to cut in line? Who will pay for immigrant services? Are we flexible enough to accommodate the future? Are immigrants fleeing for their lives or do they just need a job, or is it all the same? Are they coming to become citizens or just to take back what they can? What does our own foreign policy have to do with their impetus to leave their homeland? Why do they come here? Always remember, those with the spirit and intelligence to migrate are the people who built this country.

WILLIAM LEIDENTHAL

Los Angeles