Dear Ms. McGiffert,
Your email circulation request is like trying to fix an over flowing sink by continually mopping the floor instead of calling a plumber.
If the people who are forwarding this email are really interested in hospital-infection prevention, they would be petitioning Gov. Schwarzenegger to crack down on illegal immigration.
Before my Mexican immigrant wife was legally admitted to the U.S., she had to undergo a complete medical exam in a Mexican clinic (directed by the American Embassy) in Tijuana and then again as a backup exam, in California by an American Doctor.
Some may argue that my wife's case is an example of why we need to allow all who seek to come to the U.S. to be issued immigrant visas so they can immigrate legally and go through the medical exams. But even if we extended an open invitation to all of the world's impoverished masses, millions would come illegally anyway as long as our present immigration laws are not enforced.
Under existing immigration law, naturalized U.S. citizens can petition for their siblings of any age to legally immigrate to the U.S. In 2000, my wife who is a naturalized U.S. citizen petitioned for three of her brothers. But not wanting to go through all the "red tape," medical exams, and waiting, all three of her brothers who could have immigrated legally, crossed the border illegally anyway because they knew what all Mexicans know -- in the U.S. it's legal to be illegal -- if you manage to illegally cross the border, you're entitled to everything a legal immigrant gets -- but sooner.
Do I blame illegals? No I blame our suicidal politicians, organizations like the Consumers Union, and those who push this kind of chain email.
Hal Netkin
P.S. Do I have an agenda that some don't agree with? You bet, but that isn't an argument against enforcing our immigration laws anymore than Hitler having been a vegetarian is an argument against vegetarianism.
