It is an insult to all of us, immigrants no less than natives, to suggest that America degenerate into some form of undifferentiated humanity. A nation is not a game of muscial chairs. It is about heritage, and shared experiences, over generations. Suffering those who broke our laws--and in effect denied our right to control our own borders and communities--to come here, to remain, hardly makes any sense. I cannot understand why a basically decent, Conservative and moral man, like the President, seems to have a blind spot on this. (See Immigration & The American Future.)
William Flax
I am from a small town in Washington State in which illegal immigrants are virtually unheard of. Everyone who grows up there stays there and the real world seems so far away that it really doesn't affect folks' lives all that much.
Then, I moved to Los Angeles.
What a shock to see such rampant (and ever-increasing) poverty! I was horrified to find out that large sections of the City of Angels now looks like a Third World Mexican slum. The nice areas are like islands in a vast sea of sludge in which only the very wealthy can afford to live.
I can't even begin to believe that George W. Bush, a man whom I thought would have such a strong backbone about illegal immigration, would try to pull a stunt like this on us. What an utter disappointment.
If he goes through with this, he has lost my respect, and my vote in 2004.
I can see where the future is heading for California. It is not hard to notice that the Hispanic population(countless numbers of whom are illegal) increased by over a million between 1990 and 2000 in Los Angeles County to become the majority. Now, this only counts the folks who participated in the census...there must be thousands upon thousands of others who are finding their way across the border and infesting our cities.
Please let me be clear that I support anyone of hispanic origin, or Mexican origin who is here legally. I welcome them and wish them luck in starting a new life for their families. I just don't want to see my city turned into a big version of Tijuana...it would just break my heart to watch Southern California turn into a vast Mexican ghetto. All the signs are there, and it is inevitable unless something is done.
I wrote my congresswoman and urge others to do so as well.
As Bush is justifying this amnesty by stating that families need to be together and not divided across a border, to that I say...let them reunite in Mexico. That's where they have citizenship and so that's where they belong.