Immigration reform will halt exploitation

Immigrants from all over the world have migrated to this country for generations to ensure their economic survival and become part of the great experiment called the United States of America.

The recent influx of immigrants over the last generation have come here because American corporations and companies have encouraged them to come by offering them jobs. Some of these companies are unscrupulous and do this because undocumented workers with no legal status are easily exploited, and can be forced to work for substandard wages under extreme conditions for fear of deportation.

Immigration reform will document the undocumented, get them paying into the system, educate and compel them to learn English, and end their exploitation by unethical companies. Revising our laws on legal immigration will help alleviate the influx of undocumented workers as well. We need a system that allows regulated immigration in reasonable numbers and laws to prevent exploitation by those who would encourage illegal immigration for their own purposes.

Immigrants need to be treated with the same dignity and respect as citizens of this country, paid the same wages, afforded the same workplace protections and put on a path to legalization in proper numbers as to maintain an educated and trained work force.

Neil Murphy

Algonquin