Bert Dirschell
Centertown
Dear Editor:
Many citizens can’t seem to comprehend the difference between legal and illegal immigration. Most conservatives are not opposed to sane levels of legal immigration, by people who will not be a drain on our welfare system. We are opposed to people entering our nation illegally especially under the current “catch and release” program.
By the way, why is there not enough incentive for U.S. citizens to equip themselves for high-paying jobs in the “specialty occupations” required for H1B & H1B1 visas? Over 180,000 of those visas were issued/renewed in 2017. They can only be issued if there are not enough qualified citizens to fill the jobs. Annual salaries for the majority of these jobs range from $72,000-80,000.
The 1986 Simpson-Mazzoli Act gave amnesty to 3 million illegals. We were promised increased border security, an effective employer verification program that would ensure that only legal workers were hired, and that the amnesty would be a one-time event. Most politicians are self-serving liars! We still have ineffective border security and we don’t have an accurate worker verification system. We now have 11-15 million illegals in our nation. Democrats had full control of the federal government during the first two years of the Obama administration yet they failed to act on immigration. At least many Democrats are now honest enough to say they want our borders opened to all, thus allowing access to our welfare system. (Far higher percentages of households headed by immigrants are welfare recipients than are those headed by citizens.)
Border Patrol agents apprehended 304,000 people trying to enter our nation illegally in 2017. I wonder how many didn’t get caught. People illegally streaming across our borders are only part of the problem. Robert Warren, a former director of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service’s statistics division, estimated that more than half of illegals are visa overstays. The visa system is so dysfunctional that government can’t, or maybe won’t, track and remove those who stay illegally after their visas expire.
If the federal government quit micromanaging programs better left to state and local government (welfare) it might be able to perform its constitutionally empowered duties (immigration) with less ineptitude.