Response : An Immigrant’s Plaint Answered
I am greatly concerned about the Community Essay April 28 (“Immigrant’s Plaint: No Card, No Job; No Job, No Visa.”)
Becky Edwards writes in her essay that she arrived in the United States after leaving her “job . . . apartment . . . and friends behind.” She later admits that she entered the United States with a tourist visa. Clearly Edwards obtained a visa to the United States by means of fraud and made a fraudulent entry into the United States by claiming to be a tourist while really intending to be an immigrant. This is a violation of immigration law.
Having established that she is an out-of-status alien and an intending immigrant, Edwards goes on to complain that employers do not want to hire her, even “if I work for their lowest rate of pay.” The intent of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 is to take away the lure of employment to aliens who are out of status and not entitled, by law, to work. Readers should realize that if Edwards had obtained that position at the “lowest rate of pay,” then an American citizen or lawful permanent resident entitled to work would not have had the opportunity to be hired. Not only that, she would have contributed to the lowering of wages for those lawfully entitled to work in the U.S.
Southern California is now the home to one out of every seven illegal immigrants in the United States. The recent electoral campaign featured, as its centerpiece, the issue of the cost of illegal immigration. Edwards has knowingly violated the immigration laws of the United States and is no different than the millions of Hispanics who cross our southern border trying to find work and a better life.
The United States is the most generous nation in the world when it comes to welcoming immigrants. Over 1 million people each year are lawfully admitted to what Edwards calls the “land of warmth and opportunity.” However, the American people have a right to regulate who enters the United States and it is the job of the Immigration and Naturalization Service to discourage people, like Edwards, who have no regard for the rule of law.
RICHARD K. ROGERS
District Director, INS
Los Angeles