Immigration reform
Joseph Di Marco Jr., Greer

"Illegal immigrant" is a popular but wrongheaded term when applied to hardworking undocumented Mexican laborers in this country. These workers are mainly decent and honorable people drawn to our country because our government has known about the porous border and looked the other way for decades.

Is it wrong for people encouraged by the Mexican government to cross our Southern border to stay and claim services taxpaying citizens must provide? Perhaps. But when was that explained to these people unfamiliar with our language and laws? Actions speak to them more loudly than words.

States like California have mandated health and education services for such Mexicans. President Carter welcomed 125,000 Cubans into the United States in 1980, including some directly from Fidel Castro's jails. The violent offenders among them eventually went into our prisons at taxpayer expense. President Reagan later granted amnesty to resident illegal immigrants.

Word naturally got back to Mexico that the United States has a lax attitude toward casual (de facto) immigration. Some prospective U.S. employers have even paid bus fare to bring loads of legal Mexican guest-workers into America.

Finally awakened, many of us agree there must now be limits to this casual immigration. The real culprits, however, are not most of these decent Mexicans but our own government as well as we voters who have abided by the government's de facto immigration policy (porous borders, non-enforcement of the law, health and educational benefits, etc.) for so long.

Demeaning protests of these workers is un-American. Instead our federal, state and local culprits must be held to account for serious immigration reform. I would rather have hardworking undocumented Mexican workers in my lifeboat than most fast-talking U.S. politicians any day.