Businesses should respect, not exploit immigrants

The opposition to the proposed immigration law in Arizona is not about illegals. It's about the potential abuse of those who are citizens. A recent story told of a Hispanic man who was detained by the police, and even though he had all the proper papers, the police didn't believe they were authentic and held him in jail while they investigated. He spent four days in jail before they released him.

If you don't look Hispanic, you have nothing to worry about, but imagine having to carry your birth certificate around with you at all time, getting stopped over and over and spending time in jail if something goes wrong.

These poor people are coming to this country with nothing except the shirts on their backs and asking for nothing except money to put some food on the table for their families. They do backbreaking work for peanuts. They are being blamed for taking jobs from citizens and ruining the economy, but think about it: are they responsible for sending jobs overseas, the oil spill in the Gulf, paying off congressmen to deregulate corporations and banks, and the mess on Wall Street? I don't think so.

So let's go after the real culprits: those who are inviting cheap labor to come here to increase their profits - then when they have problems turn them over to the taxpayer. The government must regulate and get control of this. Businesses hiring aliens must register with the government and issue some kind of ID for these people. They must then pay taxes on their earnings, provide housing and health care for those they hire and stop depending on government (taxpayers) to provide for them.

It's about time the wealthy in this country start paying their fare share. Helping the poor is not socialism - it's Christianity.

Cecile Powell

Schaumburg