Cleaning Up Jobs Just Part of Solution

* I think if Priscilla Mayfield were willing to look at all aspects of immigration, she would find that she herself is involved in a great deal of self-deception (“Depending on Immigrants--and Self-Deception,” Column, June 29).

What is the cause of the dismal conditions of the workers in the fields and the 24-hour nannies? At the beginning of the article she states that no one but the immigrants (illegal?) are willing to take these jobs. Why? Because most are operating outside the law. This makes it possible to pay sub-human wages and to treat people in such an inhumane manner.

American workers have fought for years to obtain and maintain civil working conditions and wages. The illegal workers have turned our labor laws into just as much trash as they have our immigration laws.

Ms. Mayfield cannot have it both ways. We will control our borders and our workplaces or we will have barely paid, cruelly treated workers. Don’t ask me to ignore illegal immigration and to clean up the workplace. It cannot be done.

If you demand that the immigration laws are followed, you will find employers will clean up the jobs to attract workers. Then and only then will you see the workers paid enough to live civilly and be treated humanely on the job. The really sad part is the fact that once illegal immigrants move in and work under such wages and conditions, the less-trained American-born workers must accept those conditions or not work. You then look at the American worker and shake your head at their failure to work when you have already said no one should accept these conditions.

MARY K. BOSTON

Fountain Valley