Why won't candidates touch immigration?

It's extremely disheartening to read stories like your "Immigration reform an issue to avoid for some 14th Congressional candidates" on Sept. 19.

Why should individuals seeking public office and whose oath would require them to support the enforcement of all our laws be permitted to "avoid" the immigration issue? Why don't they have the backbone to support strict enforcement of our immigration laws that were created to protect American workers?

It is shameful that candidates like Bill Foster, Randy Hultgren, Dan Kairis and Doug Marks care nothing about the millions of unemployed American workers, many of them the most vulnerable in our society, having to suffer while our federal government each month issues 125,000 work permits to foreigners and looks the other way while 7 million illegal aliens are allowed to keep their jobs in the construction, manufacturing, transportation and service industries.

Are only the foreign-born, especially those here illegally, now the only ones entitled to search for a better life in the United States? Why do the media allow political candidates off the hook so easily on this issue?

Dave Gorak

Executive Director

Midwest Coalition to Reduce Immigration

LaValle, Wis.