To the Editor:
Re “Immigration Offer: Citizenship and Stern Tactics” (front page, Jan. 26):
President Trump, who based his campaign on criticizing undocumented immigrants, is now proposing legislation that puts the interests of “illegal” immigrants ahead of those of United States citizens. Mr. Trump offered a path to citizenship to some 1.8 million young undocumented immigrants in exchange for limiting family sponsorship by American citizens and lawful permanent residents. That represents a direct attack on those who do things legally and follow the rules, despite our chaotic immigration system.
Family-based petitions allow American citizens to bring legally to the country their foreign-born parents, siblings, spouses and children. It’s the basis of our immigration history and represents the core value of our nation: family values. Sponsoring an immediate relative costs thousands of dollars and takes several years. Also, the family member needs to pass a rigorous process of background checks and interviews.
“The family is the bedrock of our nation,” says the G.O.P. website. Most Americans want to find a solution for the Dreamers to become citizens of this great nation, but not at the expense of American families.
FAVIO RAMIREZ-CAMINATTI
STATEN ISLAND
The writer is the executive director of El Centro del Inmigrante, an immigrant organization based on Staten Island.
To the Editor:
Re “Trump Open to Citizenship for ‘Dreamers’ ” (front page, Jan. 25):
As an attorney who has represented a number of these great young people, I applaud President Trump’s openness to the possibility of citizenship for Dreamers. My Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival clients have been raised and educated in America. They obey American laws, work in American jobs, pay American taxes and hunger for the opportunity to become American citizens.
Why should anyone be so determined to deport them? Because they are “illegal”? Typically, they were carried here by their parents when they were small children and are innocent of any intent to break the law. Surely mercy and compassion are not so alien to American hearts that we can watch with indifference as young people are torn from the only land they really know, the United States of America.
If this be amnesty, so be it. Since when have we become so heartless that the term has become a dirty word?