Letters: Cost of immigrants raises concern
The Oct. 7 news story "Pol to push for immigrant aid" states that Reps. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) and Peter King (R-Seaford) are calling on the federal government to reimburse public schools up to $12,000 per student to educate the more than 2,500 immigrant children who recently crossed the border and are now here on Long Island. At $12,000 each, if this goes through, the taxpayer will be handed a bill of more than $30 million.
The article also says that the number of unaccompanied minors, mostly from Central America, is 43,000 throughout the United States. That makes the country's bill ring in at more than $500 million.
King visited a ninth-grade class to learn about the challenges the migrants face. The responses from some students were they wanted financial aid for college and better soccer fields. Really? My kids didn't get financial aid, despite having good grades, because I made the mistake of saving for their future from the moment they were born.
As far as the soccer fields go, if they were good enough for my kids to play on, they are good enough for the migrants.
Tom Vespo, Bethpage
I just read that protesters are demanding that Nassau County agencies offer services in Creole and Mandarin, besides the current English and Spanish ["Rally seeks help with languages," News, Oct. 2].
Whatever happened to the possibility of these people learning English? Do we have to pay for interpretation in every conceivable language? Where does it stop?
We do have instruction available to learn English. Is that so inconvenient?
Larry Ring, Coram