>This debate has been building up a long time. To suggest that it is a diversionary issue is silly. Being a Californian, you should know firsthand the impact of illegal immigration. It's beyond a measurable dollar amount, which is a guestimate at best.

Dan;

I do not have the answer as to what should be done about illegal immigration and must leave that up to our elected officials.

A somewhat related topic concerning agricultural workers is of interest to me. A PBS show a few months ago followed a family for a year. They owned a house in south Texas and had been in the United States for many generations (before Texas was a state) and worked in the agricultural industry picking produce.

The family had to travel at its own expense from one field to the other. They worked from Texas through California, depending upon the crop and time for harvesting. This family was not unusual as there are many like them. Some are Mexican American and others Pilipino American. They have to compete for wages with illegal aliens. After the season is over they return to their home in Texas. They have very little but they are a close family.

Stoop labor is very physically demanding. It is something that the average person cannot do for long. In 1963 the state of California offered unemployed workers jobs in the fields harvesting crops. State wide not one person applied for that work.

Another side of the illegal alien story is the exploitation that occurs from their own people. There are too many horror stories.

One statistic that really disgusts me is the number of felons in the California penal system that are illegal aliens.

I hope that our legislators resolve this issue.

Tom