‘Little’ Migrant Bill Packs a Big Amnesty

Re “A Stonewalled Migrant Bill,” editorial, July 26: Idaho Sen. Larry Craig’s “little” immigration bill would actually amnesty about 800,000 illegal alien farmworkers and their dependents and about 3 million people total. This would essentially be a reprise of the fraud-ridden 1986 amnesty that provoked today’s tsunami of illegal immigration.

Mercifully, Craig’s bill stalled because 1986-amnesty-burned U.S. citizens have made known our displeasure with what our “leaders” and media elites are fixing to shove down our throats.

Paul Nachman

Redondo Beach

*

I hope that state Sen. Gil Cedillo reads your newspaper, especially Tuesday’s article on the Tennessee driver’s licensing approach. Surely he would rather protect the safety of California residents by permitting driver’s certificates similar to the Tennessee approach, as opposed to awarding full-fledged driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants and legal residents with temporary status in this country. While reading the 9/11 commission report, I was reminded of how tragic it was for states to provide the driver’s licenses used by various 9/11 terrorists.

Tennessee’s new law makes infinitely more sense than Cedillo’s legislation. The legal challenge to the Tennessee law, which alleges that it discriminates against legal immigrants, is spurious. Legal visitors to the U.S. have passports and visas that can be used for ID purposes.

Illegal immigrants are not entitled to an identification document that provides de facto legal residency status to the holder, as a driver’s license certainly does.

Thomas Oatway

Valencia

*

Re “Teenage Mother Clings to Dream,” July 25: Steve Lopez ends his column by saying that someday “we may all be working for her.” We already are. We pay for her education and her child’s. Her needs translate into demands on our taxes and our standard of living. Multiply that by a few million, and it’s not hard to understand why Californians are so xenophobic.

Barbara Vickroy

Escondido