LETTER: Don’t just let foreign workers stay, let them become citizens

To Ozaukee Press:

In John Torinus’s recent opinion piece in Ozaukee Press (“Let foreign workers stay; with labor shortage our businesses need them”), he suggests that immigrants that are only here to work on farms or in manufacturing or construction should never have a chance to become citizens. He suggests that only those who are able to pay their own way into college and STEM programs have a path to citizenship. Is he suggesting that we have a system of haves and have-nots as the king and his loyal subjects would like?

As an adviser to three technical colleges and a committee member for the carpenters state apprenticeship committee, I can tell you that undocumented workers need a path to citizenship. These people pick up our garbage, mop the floors in hospitals and put out forest fires. They are paying federal, state and local taxes and pay into Social Security and Medicare. They also are part of our military and I have served with them. They all contribute to our society and they can advance if we give them an equal chance.

Under President Biden there were three immigration bills. Two never got through Congress. The third one put together by Republicans was shot down by the Republican Congress. We need a serious immigration policy. Not just build a wall, grab foreign college students and raid farms and work sites and then send them off to Alligator Alcatraz.

If we can accept their hard work and tax money we can accept them as citizens. We just need an immigration system that works and is fair to all.

Ted Poull

Saukville