Guest column: Illegal, legal immigration haunting U.S.

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Monday, January 26, 2009 5:30 AM EST

By HAROLD BOYER Times Guest Columnist

A spectre is haunting America — the spectre of immigration ... both legal and illegal! As a nation of immigrants Americans have generally prided themselves on welcoming successive waves of new immigrants to the shores of the new world. Even Native Americans came as immigrants across the land bridge from Asia before recorded time.

This pride is best expressed in the writing on the Statue of Liberty ... “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.â€