Immigration Issues Raise Questions

The United States is a nation of citizens who come from widely disparate backgrounds and cultures. This has created a history, which cannot be ignored when dealing with immigration issues. A nation of immigrants cannot turn its back on immigrants who seek to come to our shores.

But when is it too much? At what point are we saturated?

Illegal immigration does not help. It creates a society of undocumented, illegal immigrants, who are a threat, both to our rule of law and to themselves.

We need to allow legal immigrants to

come into our country by following our rules and requirements. We need secure borders.

We also need new immigrants who are willing to struggle, work hard and ascend the economic ladder to live the American dream-if not for themselves, then, like millions before them, for their children and grandchildren.

How do we balance a need for new immigrants, who will become American citizens, yet secure our borders? And what do we do with the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants who are in this country now?

The answers are not simple, and no one seems to have a complete solution. The president and congress have some good points in their respective plans, but separately and together, these are not enough.

We cannot reward illegal entry, for this would only encourage more illegal aliens to come to our shores. Nor can we close our doors, denying any hope of entry. That, too, would only encourage desperate, surreptitious attempts to enter the Untied States and remain here.

The best solution we see is to make it fair to come here. We should not discriminate against any group. But we should also make sure that any prerequisites we establish are met. Health, basic knowledge, an ability to work, prospects of gainful employment are all minimum standards set by other countries in the industrialized world as requirements for entry. We would do well to follow suit. America being the land of the free, a desire for freedom and a love of democracy would not be out of place for immigrants to profess. As for the illegals who are here now, if we can make our borders secure and devise a plan to allow sought-for legal immigration, there could be a phasing-in of illegal immigrants. They could voluntarily seek to conform to our new standards and apply for legal entry status. If done over a period of years, this would prevent our economy and any one region of our country from going into shock over a flood of immigrants or their sudden absence from the scene, either of which scenarios would have a profound and lasting undesired impact.

We urge that this solution or one like it be adopted soon. We need a fast, fair and economically feasible solution to this issue. "Remember, remember always that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists [sic]," President Frankin D. Roosevelt told the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1938. Presentday "immigrants and revolutionists" will make America even stronger and safer than it presently is--but only if those immigrants can enter this country legally so they can profess full allegiance to the United States of America.