Letters | READERS WEIGH IN ON THE BATTLE OF HAZLETON

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AST WEEK, WE asked about immigration - specifically the trial of Hazleton, Pa., for trying to limit the services that may be provided in the city to illegal immigrants, such as renting them a place to live.

I'm delighted that a local government is trying to do something about illegal aliens.

And they are illegal aliens - not undocumented immigrants. They have committed a criminal act by entering our country illegally. Unfortunately, the federal government is doing nothing to curb the flow of these illegals coming here and settling in places already financially strapped.

If the feds can't or won't do anything other than offer illegal aliens free medical care, free education and protection under the Constitution (and banks offering illegal aliens checking accounts and credit cards that many U.S. citizens are denied), then the obvious answer is that the local communities need to do something.

I love the United States and am very, very saddened by what it is becoming. I'm glad I'm old and will not live to see the day where the United States is a fallen country because of decline from within, just like Rome.

Elizabeth McDonald, Philadelphia

Why is invective directed toward "illegals" in the immigration debate and not toward the catalysts for their entry: the corporations providing employment lures.

Tyson, Swift, Conagra, DHL and the winner of that great race to the bottom, Wal-Mart, are the true purveyors of illegal crossings. Is it simply easier to focus on the "the Mexican" rather than the white male CEOs?

People who hate immigrants should ask themselves: If you were living impoverished in a country where speaking up was dangerous, wouldn't you exhaust every avenue to escape?

If every single "illegal" stays home, are you going to kill chickens? Do you really want the man who cuts the slab for your cheesesteak to go home? Or do you want him to earn a decent wage so that he can buy a home and stoke the economy?

Liz Levine, Philadelphia

The mayor says the city needs draconian measures against "illegal immigrants" to combat crime, but in fact the crime rate has declined in Hazleton as the population has risen.

From 2001 to 2006, the total population of Hazleton rose by 10,000, but the total number of crimes rose by only 39. As a result, Hazleton's 5.9 percent crime rate in 2001 fell to 4.2 percent in 2006. Ordinances like Hazleton's encourage citizens to discriminate against all immigrants rather than go through the trouble of determining which are legal and which are not.

Thus, the Hazleton ordinance is like the literacy tests that Southern states used to require as a condition of voting. On their face, they simply assured that voters were qualified to understand the issues, but their actual effect was to prevent black people from voting, whether they were literate or not.

Bill Ewing, Philadelphia

Note to American businesses:

You can't wave the sign reading "Stop 'em at the border/No illegal immigrants," then turn right around and hire illegals because you can pay them slave wages.

Note to immigrants:

If you are an "illegal," you don't have the same rights as a taxpaying citizen of the United States of America. Period. End of debate. Lawsuit settled.

Darnell Perry Sr., Philadelphia

Hazleton should be commended for its stand. They are doing nothing more than protecting the "legal" taxpaying citizens and the resources that they generate from those who would and do suck it dry.

Why should our hard-earned dollars be used to help lawbreakers? They should have no rights in Hazleton or anywhere else, not to free medical care, schools, homes, nothing. Our tax dollars have to put their children through school, they clog up our emergency rooms and, because they're treated for free, it raises what insurance companies and individuals have to pay for treatment.

Many would call me prejudiced or bigoted, but that's not the case at all. I don't care where you're from originally, what color you are, what languages you speak.

If you want to be here, just don't break the law to do it.

Traci Harmon

Douglassville, Pa.

One in 10 U.S. births is now to an illegal immigrant, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.

Children born to illegal immigrants are U.S. citizens. These children can stay permanently and their citizenship can prevent a parent's deportation.

Once adults (18), they can sponsor their parents for permanent residence. Few of the mothers have a high-school education or insurance. Each uninsured birth costs the government about $9,000. Anyone ought to be able to see the handwriting here.

Georgia B. Makiver

Lansdowne

Stu Bykofsky wrote in his column:

"My idea of reform is to open the door wider to legal immigration, but penalize those here illegally. I would eject recent arrivals, but grant a statute of limitations for those with a clean record here for more than, say, five years. I would grant them permanent residency, but deny them citizenship as punishment for breaking our laws."

Granting permanent residency without a possibility of citizenship does not pass the test of history. It creates a class of people separate from the society in which they exist. History has shown this is not a good solution.

Those here illegally must be removed and go to the back of the line to permit entry of those who have been waiting in line honestly for more then 12 years.

Evert Evertsen, Harvard, Ill.

Most of our own ancestors were immigrants who didn't come into this country illegally - they came through Ellis Island with the appropriate paperwork, health records, etc. Why should it be any different now?

Immigrants here under false pretenses need to be deported and go through the proper channels in order to be accepted back.

Judith B. McCulley, Philadelphia

The mayor and his staff are heroes for standing their ground against the ACLU.

Washington likes making laws, but it has been abdicating is responsibility at enforcing our immigration laws for a long time.

Janice Taylor, Colorado Springs, Colo.

The ACLU used to be an honorable, respected organization that sought to protect the rights of individuals who were being unfairly persecuted. Today, it is an illogical group of far left-wing extremists whose efforts focus on attempts to subvert the law and to turn reason, common sense and fairness on their heads.

Oren M. Spiegler, Upper Saint Clair, Pa.

I believe Mayor Barletta has dealt with the problem of illegal aliens in an effective and efficient manner. He is responsible for the public's safety, health and welfare. The bottom line: If you don't like a law, then change it, but don't break it.

This country will always welcome legal immigrants. The processes surrounding legal immigration were formulated with good reason. I support Mr. Barletta in making some tough, but responsible decisions.

Brian Matulewicz, Philadelphia

The frustration with how long it's taking Congress to fix the nation's broken immigration system does not excuse the misguided attempts by local authorities to take federal immigration matters into their own hands.

Mayor Barletta knows that the ordinance passed in his city last summer is pre-empted by federal law. His political opportunism is calculated to raise himself to the status of martyred folk hero by shamelessly playing upon the same sentiments that caused backlashes against large waves of Irish and Italian immigration earlier in our history.

Robert S. Nix, Philadelphia