Other views on immigration

Re “Not enough immigrants,” Opinion, April 5

Shannon O’Neil’s column is among the most reasoned opinions that I have read on the illegal immigration conundrum. The public discourse largely revolves around broken borders and laws, not to mention shattered dreams and community budgets. Rarely does the debate examine unemotional logistics.

Economic principles -- namely supply and demand -- resulted in America’s exploding illegal immigrant population. The U.S. is market-driven, with businesses angling for the lowest overhead and customers pursuing the cheapest prices. Solutions presented by politicians pandering to social conservatives are theatrics, not reality.

As a 42-year-old Mexican American, I have witnessed the emotions and often turmoil that accompanied successive waves of Latinos into exclusively Anglo American communities. The introductions were not always friendly. But one thing remains constant: Economics is responsible for these different cultures meeting in the first place.

WAYNE TRUJILLO

Editorial Director

Latino SUAVE Magazine

Denver

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It came as a great relief when I read O’Neil’s piece and learned that the massive problem that is illegal immigration is merely a “perceived problem” that is “becoming increasingly irrelevant.” Perhaps it takes the sort of emotional and spatial distance of a New York academic to unburden those of us who live and work in Southern California of the faulty perception that the tremendous tide of illegal immigration is altering our country. For some time I’ve had the dark suspicion that something here was irrelevant -- I guess it’s one citizen’s perception and his lying eyes.

KEITH STORER

Long Beach

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O’Neil apparently hopes for a huge wave of Mexican immigrants to come over the border to replenish our vanishing native-born workforce. But instead of passively accepting as inevitable the slow replacement of America’s core population, how about implementing policy changes that actually encourage marriage, family formation and, yes, more births?

The ultimate suicide of America’s present population is hardly a welcome development.

JONATHAN M. KOLKEY

Playa del Rey