We were immigrants, too

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To the Editor:
Your 1-16-15 editorial “Immigrants aren’t the problem” was well written! All of us are immigrants, unless your ancestors were American Indian. It is difficult to understand how anyone who professes to believe in social justice can be so reserved concerning U.S. immigration reform. Your reference to how accepting Lebanon is of immigrants (and I believe, Jordan) makes American policy embarrassing. I wonder if any of those opposed to a better system know the factual history of American foreign policy, read extensively about it, engage in public discourse on immigration or have traveled to a third world country.
I ask all of us to examine American beliefs about our immigration policy. The National Origins Act provisions of the Immigration and Control Act of 1924 marked the actual turning point from immigration control based on the asylum idea definitely in favor of the biological basis and established a discriminatory quota system.
What ever happened American’s trust in the Statue of Liberty inscription:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Mike Lazio
Davenport


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