Letters to the Editor: As Title 42 ends, is the U.S. to blame for the border crisis?
To the editor: In the 1920s there was sufficient opposition to entirely legal immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe that it led to a great revival of the Ku Klux Klan operating largely outside of the states of the old Confederacy with membership in the low millions. There were marches of thousands of white-robed Klansmen all over the country, and, as young children, both my parents witnessed Klan marches in Long Beach and Detroit. President Trump was elected in 2016 because of alarm over immigrants, and such concerns also empowered authoritarian regimes in other countries.
The Los Angeles Times speaks loftily of addressing root causes. How exactly can America reduce the number of people who wish to escape terrible conditions to the point where a border crisis ceases? If there is a great deal of cheap labor at hand there will naturally be those who will chose to employ it. But with a tidal wave of computer-driven automation on its way, the benefits of yet more immigrants are minimal at best. In the meantime, crowding, loss of wildlife habitat, pollution and the need for more and more infrastructure are big drawbacks.
The solution is to require an enhanced “e-verify” proof of citizenship or legal residency for employment, housing, major purchases and any government benefits not mandated by the courts.
Frank Grober, Oakland
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To the editor: Ever wonder why so many folks are teeming at our southern border today? It is because we have been such a bad neighbor to Central and South America for the past 175 years.
In the first place, we started a war with Mexico in 1848, marched our troops down to Mexico City and made a deal to withdraw if Mexico gave us California, Arizona and New Mexico. We took away nearly half of Mexico’s land and more than half of its wealth.
Since then, America has been busy exploiting other countries down south by forcing economic policies favorable to big business and big banks in the U.S. Quite often we supported dictators who were willing to implement our economic policies, but at the same time took away citizens’ freedoms.
If this mess is our fault, maybe we should take a little more responsibility to make it right.
Kimball Shinkoskey, Woods Cross, Utah
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
