Prop. 187 Supporters Deserve a Hearing
Re “Prop. 187 Is Still Casting a Shadow,” Oct. 3: So Steve Lopez thinks that Pete Wilson might be “more responsible than anyone for unchecked immigration.”
Some might conclude that the paper he works for is more responsible for illegal immigration than any organization in the state. The Pete Wilson lesson that politicians learned is that the media will be complicit in demonizing as racist those who raise the issue.
Though I appreciate that Lopez finds “exploring the insanity of U.S. immigration policy” worthwhile, why is that he gets to decide what arguments are put forward and what represents the “truth,” as he has claimed to possess in previous columns?
The Times editorialized in June that the roundup of illegal immigrants earlier this year was indefensible until we did the “hard work of citizenship” and came up with an “immigration policy [we] can live with.” Yet the paper makes any real debate impossible by excluding real representation for the 60% of voters who supported 187.
The Times’ idea of a debate is like Saddam Hussein’s idea of elections. Editors, please prove me wrong.
Jeff Sanders
Santa Cruz
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