I am so glad that I'm not the only liberal who recognizes that illegal aliens do depress wages and are a threat to American workers. Why hire an American to pick crops, wash dishes, install roofs, etc. when you have hire an illegal below minimum wage? Best of all, if they give you any shit, you just report them to INS.

Illegal immigration is just the flip side of NAFTA. It's another way to undercut the American worker and weaken the protections that those in the labor movement fought, and often, died for.

Lastly, we're not doing them any favors by letting them into this country. All that'll happen is that they'll be exploited here while Mexico remains a haven of lax labor, health and environmental regulation.

The great environmental activist and author, Edward Abbey said it best. "We should greet the Mexicans at the border, give them each a rifle and a box of bullets and tell them to make some changes in their own country."

Heck, why stop there?

The United States of the Western Hemisphere has a nice ring to it.

Screw you, European Union.

I agree in principle with the previous letter-writer. And I add that if the Mexican gov't wants outside (i.e. ours or other foreign) assistance in helping to establish emission standards, healthcare, higher-paying jobs with more vacation and benefits etc., then that could be done ('teach them to fish, they fish for a lifetime'); but that's it.

Sure, I too would like these conditions in my own country (the US); but when I show up at the German (or whatever) border without the proper papers for work, I am given a tourist visa and can seek 'no benefits from the state'. So, in the opinion of the pro-immigration crowd, others should flood my country, while I have not these same rights elsewhere as well?

But as for the salon article, it was yet another bait-and-switch slant. (Sigh). I miss the days when salon offered thorough and balanced writing that really made you think, rather than propaganda.

Take one hot-button issue.

Find one outlier who normally associated him/herself with the status quo of his/her identified group.

Make them the focus of the article.

Portend great upheaval within aforementioned group.

Having stirred a pot with one ingredient, publish.

The other side will thank you for providing them with talking points. Thanksm Britt Minshall, for being this week's stooge.

P.S.--The headline reads like a Mad Lib.

Most _____ say this is good, but some _____ say it is bad.

Explain one single thing to whcih this headline is not true insofar as it fits.

That's why it's called the lazy reporter's recipe. Soon to be named "the goldberg" for short. As in, "We're close to deadline, staff. Who can vrank out a goldberg for us asap?"

I agree and support all of the above writers, and I'm too liberal for the Mule Party. This issue isn't what the lazy-arsed media wishes it to be.

Most illegal immigrants are nice and hard working. But the world is full of nice, hard working people, who would come here if they could - and the US economy can't accommodate an infinite number of illegal immigrants, at least not without destroying what's left of the minimum wage and shredding the minimal safety net we still have.

The story won't end with the legalization of the illegal immigrants currently here. Once those workers are legal, and have to receive basic protections from their employers, then another eleven million illegal workers will come to take their places. The Republicans have not offered any serious crackdown on businesses that hire illegals, and businesses will still be looking for someone who'll work for less and won't complain. A couple of years down the road, someone will be saying that we need illegal immigrants to do "the jobs that those legalized immigrants won't do".

In a few years, we'll have the same situation again - millions of illegal workers, plus the millions of "legalized" workers. Repeat as necessary, until quaint ideas like minimum wage, public schools and emergency medical care become impossible to afford (especially as the middle class continues to be outsourced away and tax cuts for the rich continue). Isn't that what the Republicans wanted all along??

what about mining? it's hot dirty and dangerous - worse by far than fruit picking, BUT it pays well. it has a strong union that hires only americans. but how come mexicans will work for $4.50 an hour and no americans will? you can support your MEXICAN family in PESOS but not an american family in DOLLARS. and that's the long and short of it - all else is rhetoric.

I mean, this namby-pamby article is about the "splits" in the Democratic party. If you look at the party in Congress, it's pretty unified. Is anybody here actually a Dem? Or are you just the unearthly coven of mouth-breathers this whole issue brings out? Which is why it's on the table in the spring of this fateful election year.

Many years ago a good friend of mine and I were discussing the then-on-coming proposition to make English the official language of the State of California. He was shocked that I, a progressive-leftist, was for such a proposition. He shouldn't have been, because I had seen first-hand what mass immigration did to the average and poor American worker. I predicted a future with a Tower of Babel instead of a polity, and I was right. When the last amnesty was declared, almost exactly 20 years ago, I predicted that once we had absorbed those immigrants many millions more would cross our borders. Again, I was right. And now some fools say lets do it again, and that's insane.

This country cannot be an escape hatch for the entire Third World. I agree that legalizing those already here and unionizing them is a great idea. The only problem is it's the SAME idea the unions were floating back in '86 - when union membership was MUCH higher.

The solution will be painful, but simple: Prosecute ALL employers who knowingly take on illegal immigrants. Offer a very limited amnesty for a very short period of time, and then start arresting and mass-deporting those who remain. The pool of virtually free labor will dry up in a year or two, and wages and benefits will rise very quickly. It will be easier to organize legal and native-born workers. Everybody wins...except unscrupulous businesspeople, and who gives a shit about them??