Illegal aliens choose to break law, must face consequences

Letter date: 
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Letter publisher: 
East Oregonian
Letter author: 
Elizabeth Van Staaveren
Letter body: 

Advocates of driver cards for illegal aliens (for example, letter of Virginia Garcia, May 28) prefer the term “undocumented” to the true legal and correct designation, “illegal alien.”

They would like people to ignore the fact that illegal aliens have broken the law by coming here uninspected instead of honoring the sovereignty of the U.S. and its right to control immigration.

Immigration laws exist in all countries for good reason. In the U.S. immigration laws are there to protect U.S. citizens from possible harm from enemies and from flooding of the labor market with adverse consequences for citizens.

Illegal and excessive legal immigration have already caused wage depression and loss of employment opportunities for citizens, also out-of-control population growth, overcrowding, and unsustainable burdens on taxpayers for education, health care and other public services.

Illegal immigration is estimated to cost Oregon taxpayers over $1 billion yearly. Employers hiring illegal labor profit in the short-term, but they are being heavily subsidized by taxpayers to the detriment of the whole society.

Unlimited access to cheap labor retards progress in mechanization which is needed to compete internationally. Other countries already are ahead of the U.S. in mechanization of agriculture. Hiring illegal labor is not only immoral and disloyal, it’s bad for business.