Dear Everyone;
In yesterdays SF Examiner Jay Ambrose an Examiner Opinion columnist had an article on " iIlegal immigration is hurting America's poorest people". I wrote a riposte and a personal way in which to solve the illegal problem, in 150 words or less, and the Examiner agreed and published.
The Ambrose article is here:
http://sfpaper.examiner.com/content/e-edition/2006/04/04/13.pdf
This is the LTE response the Examiner published:
http://sfpaper.examiner.com/content/e-edition/2006/04/05/12.pdf
Dear Letters;
Jay Ambrose claims illegal immigration is hurting America�s poorest [�Illegal immigration is hurting America�s poorest,� April 4]. What he ignores is the economics of jobs. He cites the plight of the 65% unemployment among young black males who have dropped out of high school. Yet burger-flipper jobs go wanting. Another impediment Ambrose ignores to un-skilled employment is the minimum wage.
If Ambrose is correct, there shouldn�t be anyone on unemployment. The vital jobs of washroom cleaners or field hands he claims being taken away from Americans should be filled. There wouldn�t be any need for illegal or imported farm-workers.
The answer is simple and raises funds: Charge a reasonable annual fee to become a legal immigrant. With 11 million illegal immigrants a fee of $2,000 is fair. This would raise $22 billion and provide funds for a range of immigrant services freeing the taxpayers from footing the bill.
Ron Getty
San Francisco