Letter: Immigration debate often ignores facts

Friday, Dec. 7, 2007 | 7:29 a.m.

No matter what your views on illegal immigration, before commenting, facts are important.

Many undocumented immigrants do pay taxes without stealing someone's identity. You do not have to have a Social Security number to do so. All you need is a taxpayer identification number. The feds hand them out.

Also, since they can buy a home, they pay property taxes, and they pay sales taxes. The list goes on. And my guess is that most people think all undocumented immigrants are Hispanic. They are not. Many come from England, India and other places in Asia. Most of the vitriol is aimed at Mexicans.

And we would have to go way back to remember a time when there were no undocumented immigrants. They have come across the border near San Diego for more than 50 years, and doing farm work in the Central Valley of California and lots of other menial tasks.

As a whole, Mexicans are hardworking, religious, family-oriented people. You do not see them in homeless shelters, and their elderly rarely end up in old folks' homes. They try to assimilate, when not scared away by unfriendly citizenry.

And I would bet my last dime that our government is never going to deport them, or even make any attempt to do so. Rant all you want, but securing the border, without a wall or fence, is the only answer.

If you think having them here is expensive, just think what it would cost to deport them all. Unless this really is just about Mexicans.

Patricia Keasling, Las Vegas

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