A Worldwide Labor Pool Is Just Waiting

The Jan. 19 editorial, “No More Manana,” was correct to say: “The immigrants should not be demonized. They were lured here by the knowledge that their work was needed in our society and that the United States doesn’t really believe its own immigration laws.”

But you seem to believe there are only two countries in the world, and that this is all about Mexico.

When people say, “match willing workers with willing employers, as long as American workers honestly cannot or do not want to fill the jobs,” can they imagine how many people from other hemispheres might want to apply?

If anyone wants to hire hard-working poor people who, in addition, speak English, the Philippines can send 1 million or 2 million next Friday.

And if language is not required, Chinese workers can do to Mexican workers in our job market the same damage that Chinese manufacturers are doing to Mexican manufacturers in their respective factories.

Doug Ellice

Bethesda, Md.

*

The Times editorial is so misleading that it is fraught with peril. To begin with, the 8 million immigrants to which The Times refers are undocumented because they knowingly and willingly broke the law to come here.

That is the main reason they are without labor rights and fair pay.

In many industries outside of agriculture, American workers cannot or do not fill jobs because wages and benefits are so suppressed by the hiring of these illegal immigrants.

The Times is correct, however, when it says “that the United States doesn’t really believe its own immigration laws.”

The Immigration and Nationality Act says: “The term ‘alien’ means any person not a citizen or national of the United States” and goes on to explain that illegal aliens and convicted criminal aliens should be deported from the United States.

Jim Redhead

San Diego