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Letters to the Editor
January 30, 2008
All Immigrants Should Have To Learn English
In response to the letter “It’s time to put a stop to immigrant bashing” (The Daily News, Jan. 26), legal immigrants do not have anything to worry about in this country other than assimilating into society.
After all, they are here legally. “Legal” is the key. The problem most people have is the influx of illegal aliens.
Legal or not, people must learn to speak English. For example, it should not be a requirement of job offers that the applicant be bilingual. Instead, it should say applicant must be proficient in English. This is not immigrant bashing.
My family immigrated from Germany many years ago and took it upon themselves to learn the language in order to conduct their daily business. They realized that learning English would help them to quickly assimilate and feel more like Americans and not German-Americans.
Cindy Morgan
Dickinson
Immigrants Are Singled Out As Scapegoats
Chris Hines’ letter (“Illegal immigrant stats should make doctor sick,” The Daily News, Jan. 24) took issue with statistics I offered in my health column (“Illegal aliens, health care and unseen benefits to the economy,” The Daily News, Jan. 22), regarding the costs of social services for illegal immigrants.
The column offered full documentation for the claims that I made. Another study from the Texas Comptroller General found similarly that taxes collected from immigrants more than made up for the social services they used (www.ailf.org/ipc/spotlight/
spotlight_122206.pdf). But a Congressional Budget Office study reported within a day or so of my column came to different conclusions (www.cbo.gov/ftpdoc.cfm?index=8711&type=1).
Illegal immigrants make three economic contributions to the United States: increased economic productivity through their labor; Social Security and other federal taxes paid that they cannot collect; and state and local taxes such as sales and property taxes. Economic studies vary in the categories of money they include, thus somewhat explaining different reported results.
The more important point goes beyond these economic details. A review of U.S. history will show that, periodically, the country enters a time of economic slowdown and general public anxiety and demoralization. Virtually every time this happens, a significant portion of the U.S. population seeks a scapegoat and, repeatedly, recent immigrants have been singled out for this scapegoating role.
In hindsight, it always turns out that the scapegoating has been factually unwarranted and these immigrant groups virtually always go on to become respectable and valued citizens.
One would think that, by now, we’d be sufficiently aware of the history of immigrant-bashing to be appropriately ashamed of ourselves whenever it rears its head. (As I said in my column, the legal system is obviously broken and needs to be fixed. One can make that argument without scapegoating immigrants.)
Howard Brody
Galveston
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