President Barack Obama
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500
October 1, 2009
Dear President Obama,
Immigration is an economic and cultural “tradition” in the US. Were you aware
that the American Apparel crack down was going to occur? I hope not. Those people,
and many others like them, have been in this country many years and are Americans, except on “paper.”
America has had open borders for more than two hundred years. It has been
a fruitful and beneficial policy. Our population is as diverse as the United Nations. Our
Constitution welcomes all people to our shores. Immigrants who have been woven into American life by doing jobs we won’t do, shoring up our economy and raising our children should be respected and rewarded for what they’ve contributed to our society. We must reward them with citizenship, not arrest them.
Perhaps our borders need to change with the times, however. We can’t just allow people in without documenting them these days. Unfortunately, it is now too dangerous
for us to have completely open borders, there is so much illegal trafficking. The safety
of our citizens is suffering from many kinds of criminal activity by many unscrupulous
people, not just undocumented workers. There is much illegal commerce interfering with our peace and prosperity.
We can tighten our borders by screening immigrants for everything we need to know in order to keep all Americans safe. We want that. Arresting workers and forcing families to leave and return to their countries of origin is cruel and counter productive. Many haven’t been “back home” for decades. Many will be arrested for political views when they disembark their flight “home.” These are important people in our lives. People such as the woman who helped raise my child, the grocer down the street who has been caring for his community and raising two sons, the seamstress who lost her only son in Iraq or the doctor who plans to return to his home country to serve the poor there.
The proper and respectful procedure in rounding up illegal residents should be
to do background checks, see if they have any record of criminal activity, examine their current situation to see if they are good people and make them citizens, not deport them.
We need them here.
An amendment should be discussed and perhaps added as an “update” to our Constitution, which was crafted long ago. There are good productive people here from all over the world who should stay and help us advance to meet our challenges.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Brady
