Georgia’s new immigration law is fair
I was appalled to read your editorial about HB 87 (“Why Georgia’s new immigration law is unjust”) in the July issue. I expected a more intelligent response to the issue from an editor.
Just because the federal law wasn’t enforced due to political reasons by both parties in the past does not mean the State of Georgia shouldn’t do the right thing.
Don’t sugarcoat things by describing illegal immigrants as “undocumented workers”—they didn’t lose their documents; they either don’t have them or forged them. The following are some facts about them:
• They intentionally came here illegally.
• They work and live here without status.
• They are a drain on our economy from a health, infrastructure, and crime perspective. (In my book, even a small number of crimes committed by them are too many, though the evidence is to the contrary.)
• In most cases, they don’t pay taxes.
As a “legal” alien who went through the system with considerable wait, cost, and process, I loathe the fact that you are advocating amnesty over punishment.
These tough immigration laws protect the legal residents and flush the criminals (aka illegal aliens) out of this country that became my home.
Vijay M.
by email
Caste system has done enough evil—why bring it here as well?
We all know that there are many South Asian organizations in the metro
Atlanta area that are country-based (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc.), language-based
(Tamil, Telugu, etc.), religion-based (Hindu, Christian, Jain, Islamic, etc.) and
state-based (Bihar, Maharashtra, etc.). I do understand that these organizations have particular purposes and needs.
But I take strong offense to caste-based organizations in the U.S. It is an indisputable fact that caste has been a very sensitive topic in the Hindu religion. I strongly feel that the caste system has been responsible for many negatives of the Hindu religion for years. People belonging to certain castes have considered themselves superior and have looked down on people that belong to so-called “lower castes.” This has created many problems back in India. Untouchability is a prime example. Why bring caste to this country as well?
Sam Raj
Marietta, Georgia