Letter: Heed the words of our own Statue of Liberty

Sunday, April 2, 2006 | 7:23 a.m.

Fifty years ago I entered the United States from the Philippines on a student's visa. After a year I volunteered for the draft. The U.S. Army never questioned nor cared about my immigration status. Five months later I and a number of others stood before a judge, proudly raised our hands and were sworn in as American citizens. To this day I will never forget that moment, and when the day comes when I meet my Creator, I can hold my head high and proudly claim that "I did it the right way."

Today, in this great country of ours, we have over 11 million illegal immigrants living and working among us. These immigrants came to the United States to take low-paying and back-breaking jobs that many of us have avoided. These gentle, hard-working souls' only motivation was to make their and their family's lives more bearable. Their only sin was to endure and survive the tortuous route they had to take. One solution to this immigration problem is the one being debated in the U.S. Senate.

It is a more comprehensive one that includes granting amnesty to those already in the USA. All the hyperbole and demagoguery perpetuated by some radio hosts, self-anointed militias and conservative politicians will not solve the problem. They only incite the uninformed, demonize all immigrants and those who hire or help them.

To the young men and women who are protesting on the streets during the school day, I admire your idealism, but please return to your classrooms and learn more about this country, because "idealism without knowledge" will get you nowhere.

To those who would denigrate all immigrants, please do not dishonor the high ideals this great nation was built on and besmirch these searing words embedded on the Statue of Liberty: "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp! cries she with silent lips. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Joe Beltran, North Las Vegas