Donna Lipinski
Warrenton, Virginia
Letter to the Editor
The Star Exponent
July 8, 2009
It’s time for FAIR to wake up and realize that its age-old tactics of attacking immigrants through the means of empty rhetoric and meaningless numbers will never make us a stronger, safer, more peaceful or more productive country.
The majority of Americans already understand that. In poll after poll, there’s increasing support for a fair, common sense plan to fix our broken immigration system. Americans understand that by regularizing the status of undocumented workers, we will increase government tax revenues by bringing more workers into the system; that workers with legal status earn more and spend more; and that deporting 10 million undocumented immigrants will cost $41.2 billion annually ($206 billion over 5 years) and that their deportation will represent a loss of 1.8 trillion in annual spending.
I’ve seen the consequences of our failed system.
As an immigration lawyer for over 21 years, I’ve witnessed the toll our broken laws have on ranchers when they can’t find U.S. workers to harvest their crops; when long-time undocumented immigrants lose their homes or businesses when they are deported; when families are torn apart and become homeless when the breadwinner is deported following a raid.
People say undocumented immigrants should just get in line and follow the rules. I agree, but we must first create those legal channels and then those rules can be followed. Americans overwhelmingly agree that undocumented immigrants should be given an opportunity to apply for legal status if they register, pay taxes and learn English.
Donna Lipinski
Warrenton
http://www.starexponent.com/cse/news/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/article/fair_distorts_truth_on_immigration/38995/
