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Congratulations to the Washington City Paper and to Annys Shin for “The Crane Drain” (7/19 ), which could have never been published in the Washington Post. Even if the latter had mentioned the strike-happy and goonish behavior of construction unions, it would never have touched on the takeover of local construction jobs by “immigrants, who often have documentation problems,” as you put it (i.e., illegal aliens who shouldn’t be here at all ).
Almost all construction crews one sees in Northern Virginia, too, are overwhelmingly Hispanic—often seemingly very recent immigrants. Given our literally open-borders immigration policy (in practice if not yet in theory), this means a tremendous number of illegal aliens are doing this work while native blacks and other low-schooled workers look for such jobs and do not find any.
It should surprise no one that mass immigration from Third World countries into a developed society will impose such costs on the underprivileged and undereducated, as the more motivated (because poorer) foreigners will underbid and shunt aside the native workers. The mass influx of Third World people inevitably brings along typical Third World problems. Not only are the developed country’s problems of poverty and the poor/rich divide exacerbated by such immigration, but the fast-breeding Third World immigrants also impose all sorts of additional problems on the receiving society, beginning with the increased burdens on natural resources and infrastructure (as is already evident regarding schools, housing, and the health-care system). Let us not even mention the forthcoming language and cultural problems. (The cultural—and security!—clash has already become evident regarding Islamic immigration.)
This is the disastrous reality of mass Third World immigration into a developed society, which is covered up and hidden behind the platitudinous slogans of “We’re a nation of immigrants,” “diversity,” and “multiculturalism.” And the saddest part is that allowing such mass immigration is both stoppable and unnecessary for the United States. We should be selective and allow in only controlled numbers of immigrants who would benefit the country by bringing in useful education, capital, or skills.
Arlington, Va.