By Shane Isaacson Venice
(Re: “GOP Double-speak,” letters, Dec. 26) Ah, yes. Mitt Romney plays to “the lowest common denominator of the Republican Party, the intolerant Southern white base” when demonizing immigrants. Perhaps the respondent is referring to the issue of illegal aliens. That would be a very large population of lawbreakers that come into the United States without permission, flood our public services to hasten bankruptcy and closures, demand special education above legal citizens, are perpetrators of identity theft, bolster violent gang activity along with increased drug trafficking, and on and on. One thing is certain — even the purest person among this group is breaking the law.
Yes, we are all part of the human family. This is quite a rainbow and another reason that we have immigration laws. If nothing else, it is not possible for America to be the home to all of this planet’s human population. The idea that Mr. Romney is speaking of excluding any group of American immigrants is absurd. These would be people who are here legally either as naturalized citizens or legal residents. The media and those with ties to special interest groups have done an astounding job of making illegal aliens thought of and put in print as the same thing as legal immigrants. Let’s be clear about the difference, not cloud the issue even more.
None of the leading presidential candidates have the courage to face this issue with undiluted vision (acute near-sightedness, maybe). For those citizens living in areas of the country not yet deluged by illegal aliens, let’s arrange and exchange program. We will export a million Los Angeles County illegal aliens for them to accommodate for a while and then see if they think this is simply a question of being one big human family.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 29, 2007. Read the original PDF.