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• Thursday, July 20, 2006 10:51 PM

  Time to Change Things

  The 14th Amendment needs to be changed - to specify that all persons LEGALLY RESIDENT born or naturalized in the United States are citizens. Simple, and striking at the root of the problems from current wave of illegal immigrants into the USA. Illegals enter the US, have children which become citizens, and then are used as magnets for remining in the USA. In the most blunt terms, these parents are profiting from the result of a crime.

  Couple that to penalities on employers that hire illegals and some form of physical control at the border (read as wall) and I think you have a deal that most people in the USA could support. Maybe even a national ID card to establish residency. But who is suggesting such a "grand compromise?"

  I don't think the current "hysteria" over immigrants is racist or anything of the sort - the simple motivation is economic. The tax base of many cities, states and municipalities is being pushed to the wall by the influx of people that are not paying taxes to support the schools and social services that they use. That is not racist - it is simple survival where you see your local taxes raised over and over.

  And is is a false comparision to rail against the immigration waves in the past - most, if not all of those immigrants passed through government immigrant points - Ellis Island anyone? They at least had the mark of legal entry - the protests aganist the immigrants were a reflection of the time.

  Why is it when an employer is presented with a falsified social security number by a perspective employee, it is not immediately flagged as invalid? They have to enter a number so the employee/employer can pay taxes. We can check credit cards on line at the grocery, why not Social Security numbers? Why does the same not happen at schools when kids are entered and their parent's SS numbers are entered to establish residency?

  I don't want to be anti-Immigrant, but as an expatriate who has worked all over the world, I can tell you that most countries are tough in enforcing entry and work permits. Why does the US have to be the patsy?

  —Ironclad Read Ironclad's other letters
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