Many Latinos Don’t Support Guest Workers

In “Bush Can’t Have Latino Support and Mexico, Too” (Opinion, Sept. 2), David R. Ayon alternately claims that both “Latinos” and “Latino leaders” in the U.S. would oppose a guest-worker program in favor of one that grants legalization to more immigrants. I don’t believe this is true. When it comes to immigration, U.S. Latinos don’t necessarily hold the same views as their (often self-appointed) leaders.

While the majority of Latino leaders (politicians, community leaders, media spokespersons) are of a single mind when it comes to immigration (the more liberal the laws, the better), the opinions held by rank-and-file Latinos are infinitely more complex and varied. Many polls show that a majority of U.S. Latinos support tighter controls on immigration.

The fact is, many Latino leaders’ agendas are at odds with the opinions held by those they purport to speak for. While many U.S. Latinos realize that an open border would not be a healthy thing for either the U.S. or Mexico, many Latino leaders seek only to bolster their own power base by favoring shortsighted policies that would increase the number of Latinos in the U.S.

President Bush need not worry about losing Latino support by advocating a guest-worker program.

Alma S. Hernandez

Los Angeles

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The Mexican government has its army on its southern border to prevent citizens of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua from entering the country (“Mexico Curbs Neighbors’ Migrant Flow,” Sept. 2). Yet the Mexican president has all but demanded that the United States have open borders to let hundreds of thousands of uneducated and unskilled peasants pour into our country.

Is there anyone in the present administration willing to tell President Vicente Fox to clean up the squalid economic conditions in his country, and if he wants open borders, how about opening his first?

Robert Hughes

Santa Ana

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OK, so the Mexican government can stop the flow of Central Americans to its country; why can’t the United Stated do the same for illegal Mexicans? Oh wait, that makes too much sense and won’t allow in new voters and cheap labor for politicians to court with talk of amnesty. And it would be racist if the U.S. did it.

Brad Loomis

Morro Bay