http://www.record-bee.com/letters/ci_4422652

Article Last Updated: 09/30/2006 12:31:54 AM PDT

Here for a better life
From staff reports

I am concerned about how they're viewing immigration. The United States wants to send everybody who is illegal here back to their country. Immigration is not a really big problem, but that's how a lot of people and the government view it. Immigrants come to work and what the United States doesn't want to realize is that they are helping the economy. They're here to have a better life.
Immigrants throughout the United States earn about two-thirds less than an American does, as stated by the Urban Institute. Just here in Lake County the pear orchards have not and probably won't get picked because there's not enough workers, not only because immigrants are taking jobs in construction, but because immigration around Lake County and throughout the United States is really tough these days.

Closing down the border and putting a wall that is going to cost the United States millions of dollars might result in few immigrants not crossing over
here, but immigrants will find a way to cross over here no matter what.

Lots of people have a view that immigrants are here taking American citizens jobs. I believe this is a myth because they are actually filling empty jobs and not taking jobs away from them. Lake County has suffered a shortage of pear pickers and it will probably continue to be like this, unless the United States does something about it.

I believe the United States should give work permits to immigrants who work here. This will benefit the United States because cheap labor is what capitalists want. Even if farmers paid $15 to $20 an hour to work the fields, they would still have trouble finding workers to do these jobs.

Alberto Fonseca

Clearlake