Your Opinion: See big picture on immigration

Dear Editor:

We heard from Congressman Luetkemeyer regarding immigration. If you felt the need to put on boots rest assured many reading his entry did as well. The real deal here is stalling - anything and everything. Yes, I agree that this issue needs real thought but folks have been thinking about this for years with no action and lots of finger pointing. The time to do something is now. I understand that some out there don't want amnesty but the status quo is not acceptable either.

Some folks who are weighing in on this issue are not looking at the whole picture. First, the U.S. has millions of illegal immigrants many of whom have children and grandchildren who are citizens.

These people live and work here. They are employed in meat packing, produce and service industries. As a country we depend on their efforts and would not survive without them. One dirty secret is that often these workers are paid wages far below the minimum, employers taking advantage of desperate individuals and making big profits while we turn a blind eye.

Secondly some individuals were brought here as children and have only known the U.S. as their home. To deport them is unconscionable not to mention personally disastrous. In my view there is absolutely no need to pursue deportation but rather to pursue the Dream Act to bring them into full citizenship. These people have done nothing wrong and should not be punished.

Finally, there are so many here illegally does anyone really see a second "Trail of Tears," event as we send them all packing and going back to their homeland?

Illegal immigrants have been coming for many years, under both Republican and Democratic administrations. The problem has been ignored and now it has metastasized. It's very difficult to say we used to be fine with the efforts of these people but now we want to show them the door?

It's time to make peace. Whether you call it amnesty or anything else we need to secure our borders and to find a way to bring those within to citizenship in a reasonable and responsible manner.

We cannot continue to stick our head in the sand and think these folks are going to magically leave. We can't survive if they do. We depend on them and there is really no turning back.