Proposed Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants

Re “New Amnesty for Migrants Possible,” July 16: Doesn’t the Bush administration keep records concerning the failed 1986 amnesty of nearly 3 million illegal aliens? The lack of enforcement of our immigration laws spurred millions more to sneak into our country over the past 15 years.

Do the math, President Bush: 4 million illegal aliens here in 1986 and 11 million today. The pre-census INS estimate of 6 million in this country has risen to 11 million, which, if validated, means that California’s annual costs to provide services to illegal aliens have risen from $3.7 billion to $6.8 billion, as the illegals’ estimated population in California increased from about 2.5 million to 4.6 million.

There are no empirical, moral or patriotic imperatives for allowing millions of uneducated and unskilled immigrants to remain in the high-tech U.S. Attempts to wrap amnesty in the seductive prose of tradition, humanitarianism and fuzzy facts do little but distort both history and the practical realities of our own era. Does a country have the political right to determine its immigrations laws, or is the electorate compelled to acquiesce to federal inertia as millions of illegal foreigners storm its borders in contravention of its laws?

Michael Scott

Glendora

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The White House task force’s proposal to offer amnesty to all illegal immigrants reminds me of a game I played in grammar school. The idea of ‘home-free all’ was to get to home base. Once there, no one could touch you. Every time we offer amnesty it cements the idea that all you need to do is get into this country, stay until the next politician needs votes and you’re in. Let’s abolish all immigration laws if we’re not going to enforce them.

Our schools are more crowded, our roads more congested and our cost of living higher because of these criminals--yes, criminals. Being here illegally is the same as trespassing. While the Mexican people should be looking to their own leaders for solutions, President Vicente Fox offers advice on how to sneak into our country. This is the man Bush seeks to impress with his immigration plan.

Clem Dominguez

Huntington Beach

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The report by the Center for Immigration Studies underlines the need for an immigration “time out” while we consider the impact of high immigration levels over the last 30-plus years (“Dim View of Mexico Migration,” July 13).

Besides the dismal success rate of poor Mexican immigrants and generations of their American-born offspring, there is the alarming failure of various immigrant groups to become assimilated into our society. The trend of balkanization of the United States will certainly continue if it is fed by a constant and substantial influx of foreigners. A sharp reduction in the level of both legal and illegal immigration is necessary for the accommodation of the people we have already admitted to our country.

Matthew P. Mackenzie

Arcadia