Welcome the Stranger, Carefully

Dear Editor:

This is a response to Mr. Richard Lipman’s opinion on the paper’s coverage of the migrant crisis. While this type of happy-go-lucky attitude is expected of a New Yorker who will proudly say “vote blue no matter who,” it is a gross misguidedness about the issue. 700,000 immigrants have come through the southern border, nearly 10% of the NYC population. People and labor are a market like any other, subject to saturation, paying jobs are already scarce and these immigrants will scoop them right up to work  off the books and undercut citizens. Not only that, but these people are unvetted, fresh across the border, pending an asylum hearing as late as 2027. Think about that. A murderer or rapist can come across the border, live and work in your city and not be vetted or screened for five years. That is a risk we should not be willing to take.

Now I agree, we can give them food, shelter, and safety as well as medical care, as should be given to all of our citizens. Yet they should be kept at the border, under supervision, until their hearing where we’ll know they can be accepted into the country with little risk. Yes, that is a border camp I am describing, where they can be kept, fed, sheltered, and cared for, where they pose no threat to the citizens of the country.

Those who disagree, I would ask you this: how is this any worse than what they are apparently escaping in failed hellscapes of Central America? It is a gift that we would be giving them, an opportunity to live in the best country in the world. That should justify all options to keep it that way. How do we fund this? Easy, take some of the billions we have given to Ukraine.

Thomas Lacognata