Let's not shoot ourselves in the foot

Our country's positive economic situation today should mostly be attributed to President Obama's response to the Great Recession that he inherited in January 2009 from President Bush and his informed and thoughtful shepherding over the next eight years. Also helpful is the fact that countries around the world have finally been growing again and helping to buoy the American economy.

In our current full-employment economy, aggressive efforts to deport illegal immigrants is a huge mistake. Companies and farming interests need those individuals as employees right now and into the future. We also need their income taxes and their payments into the social safety net. Many of the Dreamers and protected-status immigrants are functioning successfully in our economy and deserve to stay. Being blindly anti-immigrant is painting with a broad brush and essentially counterproductive.

Mary F. Warren

Wheaton