In response to the column, “Will Sen. Collins stand up for immigration reform?” (June 16), the author states that voting for immigration reform will decrease wages for the working class in Maine. This viewpoint is inaccurate and harmful and it pits people against each other. Nothing ever good comes from this line of thinking. Quoting George Borjas, a known opponent of immigration rights and whose stated opinions are highly debated, even though he himself is an immigrant from Cuba, demonstrates the desire to view immigration through a harmful and biased lens.

Regarding the belief that a wall will “keep us safe” we know that drugs and the people who bring them come in through ports of entry; the wall doesn’t help. The vast majority of people coming to the border are seeking asylum. They are fleeing violence, poverty, and the changing climate that is partly responsible for both. A wall is a waste of taxpayer money and high-tech border security networks are ways for large corporations and the politicians who support them to get very wealthy.

Immigrants do not drive down wages or compete for jobs, they fill jobs that need to be filled. We are living in a time where we see help wanted signs everywhere. Employers are in dire straits because they need help. Why would we turn help away believing falsely that there aren’t enough jobs to go around?

The vast majority of immigrants are not lured here, they flee to here. No one wants to leave their home, their family, or their culture. As a poem accurately begins, “No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.”

Let’s be clear, immigration does not equate with wage reduction and to claim it does lays the foundation for belief systems that cause people great harm.

 

Mary Dunn 

Whitefield

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