Letters - Letter to the Editor

--"Baffled rage, awe, and gratitude"- -- Rob Long ("Uncle Sam WaWants Them," March 25) sums up a whole family's range of reactions in those words. I am a mother of six -- two of whom are 20-year-old twins who serve in the United States Marine Corps.

In a family that includes children born between 1970 and 1986, you can imagine the polarity of views on not one, but two siblings joining the Marines. Yes, rage and awe, respect, and now during war, gratitude and fear.

Mr. Long's piece accurately describes my boys -- having endured a turbulent adolescence, they were turned by the Marines into trim, respectful men. My gratitude goes to my boys for signing on the dotted line and to the Marine Corps for the superior training; and my prayer goes to God for their safety. After all, I'll always be a mother first, and then a patriot.

Thea J. Bohannon

Virginia Beach, Va.

-- National Review has succumbed to another bout of anti-immigration fefever. In his April 22 article ("May We Get Serious Now?"), John O'Sullivan declares that "the [Sept. 11] hijackers were all immigrants." Wrong; none of them was. Like most foreigners who enter the country, they were all here on temporary "non-immigrant" tourist or student visas. They never applied to the INS for green cards or any other permanent status.

In a typical year, about 24 million foreigners enter temporarily as tourists, another 5 million as business travelers, half a million as students, and half a million as temporary workers. All of them enter on temporary visas and almost all of them leave the country after a few days or weeks. The additional million or so who enter each year to immigrate make up only about 3 percent of the total number of foreigners who typically enter the country annually.

Anti-immigrant crusaders blur this distinction for an obvious reason: Their most pressing agenda is immigration reduction. That's why Mark Krikorian spends almost all of his March 25 article ("Get Tight") arguing for drastic cuts in the 3 percent of foreign-born arrivals who come here to immigrate. Of the more than 90 percent of foreign-born visitors who enter as tourists or business travelers each year, he can only manage the rejoinder that "tourists will keep coming." Krikorian wants to close the small window that allows immigrants in, even though none of the Sept. 11 terrorists came through it, while ignoring the much larger barn door of temporary visas through which all the terrorists entered.

The misguided focus hurts the war on terrorism because the resources we now squander to raid construction sites and meatpacking plants in pursuit of peaceful immigrant workers could be better used to intercept and track down terrorists.

Daniel T. Griswold

Cato Institute

Washington, D.C.

--In "Hasta La Vista, Baby" (April 8) John O'Sullivan displays totoo much pessimism regarding Republican Hispanic-outreach efforts. Among other things, he laments that Hispanics trend Democratic the longer they reside here.

Why not look at it this way? The less time Hispanics have spent in this country, the more amenable they are to the Republican message -- before they've been swallowed up by the Democratic machine. Why not go after these voters? Because Mr. O'Sullivan believes that "continuing immigration channels new, poor Hispanic voters into the Democratic ranks." Of course it does. And it will continue as long as do-nothing attitudes support such predictions.

We should target newer immigrants, attract them, and include them -- instead of surrendering them to the Democrats.

Hispanics overwhelmingly desire to be a part of this country. They want their children to learn the language of success: English. They want to compete in our markets and be free to succeed and to fail on their own. They are Americans and desire to be considered as such. Hispanics are waiting for a long-overdue message of welcome from Republicans. Let's not disappoint them.

Raul Damas

Opiniones Latinas

Washington, D.C.

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