Letters From the Issue of Thursday, April 19, 2007

Immigrant Song

Defending The Bird: I don't know how The Bird gets away with it. Why hasn't he been tarred (he's already got feathers, right?) for what he's said about illegal aliens? His "Dueling Mormons" article alone, I'm sure, drove the Mexican-haters around here completely crazy (Stephen Lemons, April 5).

I've noticed that whenever New Times writes about Mexican immigrants as if they were even human beings, the KKK crowd writes in to the paper with a vengeance. They may not be actual Klan members, but if they lived in an area where the Klan was prominent, that's what they'd be. They'd be out burning crosses in Mexican neighborhoods.

The Bird's point is: Illegals wouldn't be here if there wasn't work for them. And the people who employ the majority of them — the big development companies around here — are among the very ones who are putting people like George W. Bush and even Janet Napolitano in office. They are the ones who contribute to political campaigns.

My solution would be to put the owners of these big firms in prison if they employ illegals. That would stop the problem. Also, some sort of amnesty program needs to come about so that law-abiding, hard-working undocumented people can stay here.

What many of us forget: We all came here from other countries way back when. This is a nation of immigrants, and we need to somehow make Mexican immigration work. It's the most rational solution.
Sean Jackson, PhoenixHell, no, they won’t go: The Bird's right that something rational must be done about illegal immigration, and that Jeff Flake might have the answer. Come on, rednecks, we can't just make them all go back to Mexico! They fucking won't go, and then what will we do about it?

I'm sure The Bird's foaming-at-the mouth detractors would suggest genocide, since concentration camps would cramp our tax coffers.
Paul Jaworsky, TucsonA plea for amnesty: I agree with Congressman Jeff Flake, as reflected in The Bird's column, that we need to recognize that there are good, hard-working Mexicans among us whom we must allow to stay here and be good Americans.

But the part of his plan that won't work is the idea that all these Mexicans should be made to return to Mexico and re-enter to make it all legal. That will never happen. He needs to rethink this part of his plan.

It would be better to have mass amnesty for any Mexicans who've been here for five years and are gainfully employed. That way, those undocumented folks can be fully taxed and pay for the public services that they are using.
Millicent Smith, PhoenixBile over substance: What did "Dueling Mormons" have to do with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? I saw the article as an attempt to distinguish the views of two Arizona representatives on illegal immigration. I didn't even know that both Pearce and Flake are Mormon.

I think it's shameful that your organization would be so irresponsible to label an article as a fight between two authorities within a religion when the article has no such substance. I have no qualms with the article as it was written, but the title was a breach of any responsible writer's ethics.

The only reasoning that I can imagine behind this action is an attempt to hook readers who have enmity toward the Mormon church. I hope that isn't true because that would be pandering to intolerance, which I thought your paper was against.
Name withheld by requestHatin´ on CPS

Pete on the hot seat: Robin Scoins has more caring in her little finger than the whole of Arizona Child Protective Services. The people who are trying to discredit her have no honor ("Public Enemy Number One," Sarah Fenske, March 22)!

To use power as a state legislator to silence anyone who opposes you (as Republican Representative Pete Hershberger has done) is corrupt, at best. There should be more press reports of CPS' failures and legislators' failure to do anything about them!
William Marro, CottonwoodSatisfied customer: Robin Scoins and her group were a great source of support and hope during one of the most difficult times of my life. She never gave up on me and never let me give up fighting for what was right, the return of my daughter Kaylee. I truly believe that things would have ended different if Robin and her friends hadn't been there.
Mike Edwards, PiggotWill the real lobbyist please stand up?: Maybe we, the people of Arizona, should rewrite the laws on what legislators can do. What Representative Hershberger did seems to be a conflict of interest. He should not be on that committee while accepting money from companies that directly benefit from his work. Who is the actual lobbyist here?
Ricky Gene Thompson, CottonwoodHidden Holocaust: I'm sick and tired of listening to Janet Napolitano praise civil rights activists like Martin Luther King Jr. out of one side of her face while knowingly making a mockery of everything he stood for out of the other. I'm speaking about allowing Arizona's Child Protective Services to violate every Constitutional and civil right that low-income families have.