SC Times immigration letter

A LTE in the SC Times support legalizing all immigrants.

I guess I am a moderate on illegal immigration. I do not support the extremes of the Republican Party to expel or deport all illegal immigrants and do not support a Democratic view of granting citizenship to all illegal immigrants.

I believe in realistic reforms to immigration that do not include 50 foot walls and National Guard men and women at our borders.

We can start by a VISA program that works. A program that allows the number of workers that will allow businesses to obtain the workforce needed. The farm industry would be hurt by extremist reforms on either side.

Secondly, we must examine the damage to the global economy caused by NAFTA and CAFTA. One of the reasons commonly cited for the surge in illegal immigration is that the economies of many NAFTA and CAFTA nations, Mexico and Central America, have been hurt by these "free trade" agreements. It's time to revisit the impact.

More importantly, isn't it also clear that there are plenty of jobs for them to do? After all, if there wasn't enough work for them to do here, they certainly wouldn't be hopping fences, digging tunnels, crossing treacherous rivers, to then cross the blast furnace heat of deserts or to hide in dark cramped and scarcely ventilated cargo containers to come here just to sit around and do nothing.

So obviously the work is here for them to do. So the next leading concern about legalizing all illegal immigrants entering our country is that by doing so it would lower the wages of all American workers in general.

In actual fact, just the opposite would happen!

Immigrants do not hop a fence or swim a river just because of jobs. One can obtain access to health care and other beneifts not available in their nation as well.

While I am not an economist, I do not believe any argument that allowing illegal immigrants to be citizens will raise wages. I believe it will create more competition for a market that already has slower job growth than in previous decades.

We must also punish corporations that expolit illegal labor, create an incentive to not cheat the system.

Real reforms are needed with regards to immigration. Extremist views on both sides will not accomplish this.