Reject blanket amnesty for illegal immigrants
December 12, 2013, 2:39 p.m.

A recent Your View by Philadelphia area immigration lawyer-advocate Matthew I. Hirsch purports to educate us ignorant Lehigh Valley residents about the supposed economic benefits of giving amnesty to millions of illegal aliens in this country.

This argument is used frequently by those who have strong political or social agendas to make these 15 million or so illegals overnight citizens. Hirsch's bias in this regard is evident by his failure to use the terms "illegal" or "amnesty" even once, resorting instead to the lame euphemism "undocumented" for those who have entered the U.S. illegally.
The major weakness of Hirsch's argument is that it fails to disclose all the costs generated by the illegals, most of whom are of low educational and socioeconomic levels. Hence they and their families often require welfare, food stamps, education and other expensive benefits American taxpayers foot the bill for. Studies have shown that these costs far outweigh any supposed economic benefits of providing blanket amnesty.

While I agree that some type of immigration reform is necessary, we should focus on identifying those people with high educational and skill levels who would truly benefit our economy and society, rather than conferring blanket amnesty on millions of illegals about whom we know virtually nothing.

John Jaffe
South Whitehall Township
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