Letter: Volume of immigrants too much to handle

Thursday, May 25, 2006 | 7:15 a.m.

I was not surprised to hear that Rep. Jon Porter is rethinking his immigration vote. Most elected officials of both parties in Congress have little or no guts to do what is good for America and Americans.

The current amnesty for illegal immigrants and the guest-worker program, which is amnesty, are a response to the whims of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its cronies who continue to violate federal immigration laws by hiring illegal immigrants instead of citizens or legal residents. These employers are paying stoop wages, no taxes and are costing middle-class workers their jobs.

If the Senate's bill comes to the joint Senate / House conference committee, the following would happen if the bill were to become law, according to Numbers USA, a self-described "immigration-reduction organization":

A. Amnesty and citizenship for 12 million-plus individuals.

B. A doubling of the legal immigration from 1 million to 2 million a year.

C. A guest-worker program in which the guest worker never goes home.

D. Give 66 million permanent residency green cards to foreign workers and residents over the next 20 years.

Please tell me how America can absorb 66 million new immigrants, how we will pay for this and what impact it will have on the shrinking middle class and American society?

Can any member of the Congress, Republican or Democrat, tell me why this legislation is good for America and Americans?

Michael A. Rotello, Henderson