Immigration debate.

• Author: Wirbel, Loring
• Position: Letter to the editor

I find it deplorable that the opinions expressed on illegal immigration in the August Letters to the Editor section could be held by people who subscribe to a magazine called The Progressive. It was difficult to distinguish the two published viewpoints from that of Colorado arch-conservative Representative Tom Tancredo.

Then again, this should not be surprising. During the July special session of the Colorado legislature, Democratic and Republican representatives were falling over themselves to demonstrate who despised Mexican and other Latin American citizens the most. Even President Bush held a more nuanced position.

A very significant number of U.S. citizens of all political stripes hold opinions that can only be described as downright racist.

Loring Wirbel

Monument, Colorado

For decades, U.S. economic and political pressure has contributed to the destruction of Latin American economies, to the extent that the poor of many countries lack the means of survival. Yet our government has insisted that it must remain illegal for those people to come here in search of what they can no longer gain at home. That is viciously unethical. It means people die. If you really want to stem the flow of immigrants, demand that the U.S. government and businesses deal fairly with the countries of Latin America so their economies can recover and support their people.

Katharine W. Rylaarsdam

Baltimore, Maryland

Several of the comments in the Letters to the Editor section in your August issue compelled me to respond both to the proponents and the opponents of the "No human being is illegal" slogan. My message is this: The conservative right is leading us all by the nose.

Why...