WOW! You must believe that illegal immigrants have enormous powers, Sally Rodriguez (“Illegal immigration comes with a cost,” March 30)! According to Sally, 11 million illegal immigrants are responsible for bankrupt hospitals, crowded classrooms, declining water supplies, polluted air, and half a dozen other big problems that our country faces. You forgot to blame them for climate change, another biggie!
I guess the other 309 million people in our country are so engrossed in their own lives—working, social networking, shopping online, raising children, etc.—that they never use the hospital emergency rooms or drive their carbon dioxide-emitting SUVs and minivans on our roads and bridges or drink and sprinkle their lawns with water! All these problems and many others can only be the fault of those damn illegal aliens!
Well, here are some facts, Sally. Farming, oil drilling, power plants, and other water-intensive businesses consume 90 percent of the water in our country. You may be surprised to learn that severe droughts throughout our nation have been depleting our water supplies for many years, Sally. Or are you one of those climate “deniers”?
Seventy percent of the crops eaten by people in the U.S. and exported to other countries are grown in California and Texas. What do you think our lives would be like if the hardworking farm laborers weren’t here? Food prices would skyrocket and some of our favorite foods would disappear from supermarkets. Do you want to pay $5 a pound for tomatoes, apples, and oranges? Who cleans the rooms in those swanky hotels? Who waits on you when you eat at a local restaurant? You got it all wrong, Sally!
This article appears in Apr 13-20, 2017.