Greed the reason for immigration problem

The only true need for illegal immigrants in this country is greed ? the greed of those individuals and companies who feel they should be exempt from following the laws governing employment of people within the borders of the United States.

They are the ones who dangle a carrot and induce other country?s citizens to openly break our laws to enter and gain employment.

Of course, this administration insists these unscrupulous individuals don?t really know the people they hire are illegal saying they present legitimate documents. Balderdash!

These people are the problem. By closing down their illegal operations much of the illegal immigrant problem would be solved without a fence, without troops guarding the border, without amnesty programs, ID cards or Minutemen.

We already have a plan that has worked for 230 years, a plan that costs every one of us billions of dollars a year to operate. It?s called legal immigration. Enforce it! It has rules, regulations, and quotas. Millions of people have abided by these laws to enter.

One out of every 138 Americans has been prosecuted and convicted of a crime. That?s more than 2 million a year. How can our government justify punishing its own people while ignoring people from other countries openly breaking the laws of our nation? This is especially true in a time when security is our utmost concern.

Now our representatives seek to let these people remain and even to start a new program for them, guest worker, to allow even more to enter. And will they enter to do these hidden jobs Americans won?t do, or will they enter as they already have as factory workers, masons, drywallers, teachers, doctors, landscapers, lawyers? And are these the jobs Americans are unwilling to do?

If they were absent would Americans not grow and pick vegetables or fruit? Would agriculture fail? Would houses not get built, food not get cooked, kids, houses or motels not get kept? Would America not function?

There is nothing the American worker cannot accomplish. However, if our people had not fought for their rights as American workers, we would all still be working for 40 cents an hour with no safety protections whatsoever.

I sympathize with the plight of the Mexican people, however, their problems will never be solved by our people or our government. They must win that war by correcting the shortcomings of their country ? not by invading ours.

And for the greedy and corrupt of our country who would circumvent the laws we as workers have fought and died for: If you can?t operate a legitimate business in our country and follow the laws the rest of us follow, then move to the other side of the border where you will feel much more at home with those of your thinking.

Andy Fabri

South McCrary Street

Woodbury