Letter: Border continues to be eroded

Monday, Feb. 9, 2004 | 9:03 a.m.

On Jan. 7 President Bush proposed a drastic overhaul of our immigration laws that (in the words of The New York Times) "effectively amounts to an amnesty program for illegal immigrants with jobs in the United States."

As numerous media accounts noted, President Bush made his announcement -- before an audience including representatives of major Hispanic pressure groups -- just five days before meeting Mexican President Vicente Fox at a hastily called "Summit of the Americas" in Monterrey, Mexico.

Like Fox, President Bush eagerly supports construction of an EU-style continental government, which would begin with next year's completion of the so-called Free Trade Area of the Americas. Conferring amnesty and various benefits on illegal immigrants from Mexico will accelerate the erosion of our southern border and the amalgamation of our country with Mexico. In fact, those developments must occur in order for the FTAA agenda to succeed.

Thus, at a time when our nation's manufacturing economy is reeling, our communities are suffering from unemployment, and our homeland is menaced by terrorism, President Bush and his congressional allies plan to reward millions of foreign criminals in our midst in order to curry favor with a hostile foreign government (that of Mexico) and advance our nation's descent into a regional government.

FRANK M. PELTESON