Too many people responding to M. Greenberg’s letter (“Liberal Activism in Our Schools,” September 7, 2023) have romanticized illegal immigration. My grandparents came here legally, had to be sponsored by relatives who would support them if the job they had waiting for them did not pan out and were not given funds by federal, state or local governments. Today’s illegals are given cell phones, tablets, food and shelter upon arrival. The illegals’ cost to NYC has the city about to ax 5%-15% from its budget which will impact tax-paying city residents. In addition, as a US Senator noted, if the illegals were doctors, lawyers or journalists people in those professions would be up in arms as their wages sank. However, since illegals displace American citizens in lower-paying professions there is no outcry. Then we are told that illegals are only taking jobs Americans won’t do, but that is only because illegals have suppressed wages to such an extent that American citizens, who pay taxes, can’t afford to take them. If illegals were not here, wages for these jobs would rise and citizens would fill them. Finally, if you go into an emergency room in areas with high numbers of illegals, you will find them full with illegals who do not pay. This adds significantly to already elevated healthcare costs in this country.

Immigrants, like my grandparents, were not a financial burden to this country and even illegal immigrants, prior to the 1960s, were not as large a burden before the US turned into a full-blown welfare state. I agree with M. Greenberg that doing ‘chesed’ for people whose first step on American soil is a crime does not seem appropriate, when there are a whole host of chesed opportunities among our fellow citizens.

Joseph Starcher
Oradell