Halt Immigration Until Some Decisions Are Made

* In response to your article “Middle Class Despairs Over Its Paradise Lost” (Dec. 19), The Times reports that over the past several years, the San Fernando Valley has been splintered apart, with extremes in wealth and poverty. The Valley’s middle class it seems, is getting the heck out!

Gang violence is up, violent crime is up, home prices have dropped, graffiti is omnipresent, welfare rolls are growing, and does it seem coincidental that illegal immigration is out of control? I think not.

The problem is not immigration but too many illegal immigrants arriving in a small window of time. We must get off our hands and impress upon our local representatives that California is tired of absorbing the glut of undocumented workers. We don’t have the social services or the money to handle the multitude of newcomers.

Washington must shut the borders and let the people of California as well as the rest of the United States catch our breath and decide how to assimilate the legal and undocumented foreigners that are now upon our soil. This is not immigrant bashing but simple common sense.

STEVEN PALUMBO

Encino