Josh Hong's analysis of the issue of illegal immigration into the US via the border with Mexico is decidedly incomplete and one-sided. I believe Hong, with a misguided left-wing zeal and an incomplete understanding of the American situation, has failed to consider some important points.

  1. Every nation has the right to look at the quality of the people it admits as immigrants. Contrary to Hong's repeated assertions, many of the 11 million illegal immigrants - yes, 11 million, and that is an outrageous number - are not "hard-working" and "industrious." Indeed, some 10,000 "M13" gang members from Central America have spread all over the United States. The M13 gang comes from civil war-torn areas of Central America, are desensitised to violence, and are so vicious that they make the traditional Los Angeles street gangs look like choir boys. We need these people like we need a hole in the head. Many other illegals simply drain the welfare rolls and overcrowd the schools without contributing much, if anything.

  • The American people were not, as Hong claims, "shocked" by the mass demonstrations. Rather, they were annoyed by the attitude of entitlement that these illegal immigrants have assumed. The illegals believe that because they are in the US and have worked for a while (illegally, of course, with under-the-table wages), they are entitled to citizenship automatically.

  • So they feel entitled, do they? And why should legitimate immigrants, who patiently follow the rules, have to queue up behind 11 million unskilled illegals? I have a friend from China who spent two years jumping through the bureaucratic hoops - and studying English intensively - to finally obtain her work visa in the US. She has worked extremely hard in the manner that Chinese are famous for, and now earns US$5,000 a month or more as a nurse in California. Why should she have to struggle for that visa for two years while Latino gang members and cherry pickers can simply stream across the desert border and demand citizenship? Because it's a land border that separates them from the US and not the Pacific Ocean?

  • Another point seldom understood outside North America is that the Mexican government actively encourages illegal border crossings, because (a) it's a convenient way to deal with massive unemployment and poverty in Mexico (let the US deal with these people, and then the latter can even send cash back to Mexico - why not?) and (b) because Mexico certainly has no interest in holding on to the M13 gang members who stream northward from El Salvador to sneak into the US.