Letter to the Editor:
Costs of Illegal Immigration
Tuesday, August 28, 2007; Page A12
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01453.html

Regarding the Aug. 23 letter "It's Not Immigrants, Just Population":

While overpopulation has put a strain on this region's infrastructure, as letter writer A.L. Swiggard suggested, that is not the main problem with illegal aliens.

Illegal aliens cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars a year more -- in schooling, welfare, crime and policing, medical and hospital services, translation services, etc. -- than any alleged economic benefit they provide to their illegal employers.

Such costs, and the social problems associated with illegal aliens' failure to assimilate into American culture -- by not learning English or by living in overcrowded housing, for example -- are real and cannot be swept aside simply by blaming their recognition on "ethnic prejudices."

JERRY CAPLIN
Gaithersburg
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Letter to the Editor:
Immigration Reform Must Work for All
August 28, 2007; Page A11
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1188266 ... lenews_wsj

It never ceases to amaze me how many government officials condone illegal activity. In her editorial-page commentary, Pia Orrenius exposes the real flaw to immigration reform in the United States ("'No Match, No Sense," Aug. 13.): failure to uphold the law. She makes the excuse that the Social Security Administration's no-match letter program will cause "serious economic harm." The harm to all of us and illegal aliens being that they will have to take lower-paying jobs, their wages will be untaxed, they will default on morgages and credit cards, and put a strain on health-care services, since they can't pay. By her logic, we shouldn't prosecute bank robbers because they really went into the bank to get money to pay for food, clothing, health care and their mortgage payment. Putting them in jail will only hurt the economy.

Who gave jobs and issued mortgages and credit cards to "illegals" in the first place? The SSA no-match program at least begins to address the job side of that issue. If an illegal alien has applied for a green card, it indicates they are willing to take a legal path to work in this country, otherwise "illegals" have broken the law and they should pay a price. When politicians, government offiicials, and businesses understand that fact, we may then begin to construct real immigration reform that works for everyone.

Jim Vleisides
Souderton, Pa.