Dream Act divide

Re “Senate’s defeat of bill puts students’ dreams on hold,” Oct. 26

Anti-immigrant sentiment has clearly gone too far. The failure of this bill’s passage prevents a clear pathway to citizenship for the people we should be most willing to openly welcome -- those who have served in our military or excelled in our educational system, thereby demonstrating that they are able and motivated to contribute to our society.

The article does not mention the political party affiliation of those voting against this very fair-minded measure, but my bet is that it was Republicans who constituted most of the votes against it. If so, this is another indication of why, in many people’s minds, Republicans of late have become blinded by narrow thinking and fear and are giving their party a very bad name.

Bill Hessell

Culver City

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The article doesn’t talk about the very bad features of the recently defeated Dream Act. The measure was written in such a way as to have allowed many illegal immigrants to acquire backdoor amnesty.

This country should still be one of laws, and everything that has been proposed to help illegal immigrants (such as granting them driver’s licenses) is another way of changing the whole concept of citizenship. This is unfair to legal immigrants and to all native-born Americans.

Jiro Tomiyama

Los Angeles