I saw this letter to the editor in my local paper :

Why Hurry on Illegal Immigrant Issue

I read an article about 25 years ago in which the author predicted that by the turn of the century the average American worker would be competing for low-wage jobs. The writer said that this would be a contrived situation brought on by the collusion of global corporate interest, the object being to create in America a Third World labor pool.

He said that this would be accomplished in three ways: squashing of unions, exportation of good-paying jobs, and flooding the labor market with illegal immigrants. The first two parts of the prophecy have been nearly fulfilled. The president, having won re-election, and having promises to keep and capital to spend, now has four years in which to fulfill the latter part.

Suddenly, almost magically, immigration has been capitalized and promoted to the front burner. "I'm going to find supporters on the Hill and move it," the president recently said in reference to changing laws that would let undocumented immigrants work legally in the country.

Why is he in such a hurry on this issue? You would think he had a Mexican brother-in-law waiting at the border. The president offers a very revealing statement: "We would much rather have security guards chasing down terrorists or drug runners or drug smugglers than people coming to work."

Why is it that for four years, while he was campaigning, he never confessed that terrorists were coming across the border? Answer: This would have necessitated the closing, not the opening up, of the borders. The electorate would have insisted. But now re-election concerns are nonexistent and the president has capital.

What is really frightening is that, in spite of 86 percent of the American people opposed to it, there is major support from both sides of the aisle on this issue. And that seldom bodes well for the rest of us. When the big fish swarm together, the little fish better get goin'.

Wayne Ingram, Springfield, IL
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I'd like to see that article he read 25 years ago. Quite priescent.