It's the illegals
Friday, July 13, 2007


I would like to respond to Ralph Reiland's attempt in his recent column to criticize and lay a "guilt trip" on all of us who are opposed to illegal immigration ("Muddled immigration logic," July 9 and PghTrib.com).
I read through Mr. Reiland's column twice and noticed he never used the word "illegal" as an adjective for immigration.

I, as most Americans, strongly support legal immigration as a means of offering those millions of people around the world the opportunity to enter our country and become a part of American freedom.

There is no question that legal immigration helped to build this great society of ours, but allowing millions of undocumented aliens to enter this country through the back door is nothing short of national suicide.

Both sets of my grandparents are legal immigrants who came to this country from Italy and Quebec. They never for a moment would have expected the local public school systems to hire Italian- or French-speaking teachers to help them "assimilate" into American society.
They, too, worked menial jobs in the hope of giving their children a better life than they had, and they were embarrassed to take anything they considered a handout, especially from the government.

No, Mr. Reiland, we have no problem with legal immigration. To borrow from the former campaign strategist of former President Bill Clinton, "It's the illegal immigration, stupid!"

Tom Gallant
Findlay


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