Immigration policy badly in need of reform
Emily Ruiz, a 4-year-old U.S. citizen, returned to her home last week and was reunited with her family in New York after being wrongly sent to Guatemala by U.S. immigration officers. Credit: Clark Jones
The initial return of 4-year-old Emily Samantha Ruiz, an American citizen, to Guatamala should be the last straw in the abuse immigrants in this country have had to suffer ["Brentwood girl flies back from Guatemala," News, March 31].
Immigration reform is long overdue, and little Emily is a prime example of the inhumane response the laws are creating. The immigration laws rip apart families and cause undue suffering for children.
Let's allow Emily's experience to be the wake-up call we need to address the rights of every law-abiding person in this country.
Patricia Smucker
Lido Beach
Editor's note: The writer is a licensed social worker.
I have been following many of the stories and census figures illustrating the growing Hispanic population ["Hispanic boom keeps booming," News, March 30]. I am astounded at the lack of focus on illegal immigration. Are we to commend these individuals for arriving here?
Many begin working off the tax rolls in landscaping and as contractors' assistants. They are given transportation, provided lunch and receive upwards of $100 per day. How sweet life would be if we were all able to squirrel away our wages, given transportation to and from our places of employment, and provided lunch. And if we are sick or injured, we proceed to the nearest emergency room at no cost.
We bear the burden of the social services illegal immigrants use. The businesses that play by the rules and pay their fair share of taxes are going under, and they are angry at those who don't pay taxes and prosper.
Also, to accommodate this massive illegal immigration, we now have to press "1" to speak to someone in English.
Theresa Fennelly
How are we to pay to educate illegal immigrants when we can't even afford to educate our own children? Especially now with our economic problems, cuts are being made to keep our schools from going under. We have no money or teachers to spare.
Illegal immigrants have already broken our laws, and shouldn't even be in this country. This could never have happened in 1951. We came here legally, with papers, health checkups and the jobs that adults were required to have waiting for them. My mother and grandmother came here and made a commitment to the United States by becoming citizens as soon as they could.
Haven't we learned anything from the serious problems our hospitals are having by supplying free care to people who have no insurance and no money to pay? In one way I feel sorry for them, but then I remember that they have already thumbed their noses at us and our laws by coming into the United States illegally.
These people couldn't care less if they bankrupt our country. If we had any extra money, why not spend it on our own poor, and possibly homeless children, who are legal residents?
We should stop the automatic citizenship of babies born in this country, unless one of the parents is already a citizen.
Helga S. Guthy
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