Honor hardworking immigrants

To the editor:

I’m not one of the politicians Alvin Gordon called out to comment on his nonsense about immigration (“How to discuss immigration?” Sept. 10). But I have plenty to say anyway.

So Mr. Gordon claims he is not a bigot. But he’s angry at immigrants, most of them Mexican, who are here illegally.

Most of them pick our fruits and vegetables for sub-minimum wage salaries. The ones picking tomatoes in Florida are paid a penny a pound and pick 4,000 pounds a day for a whole $40 daily.

Of course, Mr. Gordon is not angry at the rich white men who hire them knowing they are here illegally. That’s why they get away with paying them so little. Are these rich white men not lawbreakers?

This country’s original immigrants went on to steal land from Native Americans and commit genocide against them. But this was considered legal.

As for those who argue that neither they nor their ancestors were among those original immigrants, it doesn’t matter. Neither was either side of my family, who were Eastern European Jewish. 

There is still something wrong with dismissing hardworking people who are essential to our food supply and receive dirt poverty wages as lawbreakers while we consider our original immigrants to be perfectly legal.

Richard Warren