Letter to the editor: Jobs for immigrants

A tip of my cap to the letter-writer who suggested that those seeking to enter America could fill available jobs as employers are unable to find workers to satisfy their needs (“Immigrants can help fill jobs,” Jan. 16, TribLIVE). He believes in supply and demand.

Unfortunately, he is a dreamer because doing what he suggests would bring people, unlike us, to our area. History teaches that we were rarely receptive to doing so, especially when migrants are people of color.

Spare me responses about the American “melting pot” or the oft-quoted portion of Emma Lazarus’ poem on the Statue of Liberty. Sadly, over the years and between the lines of “Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free …” are the added, unwritten words, “your white-skinned.”

When industrialists sent recruiters in search of workers to do the back-breaking work in America’s mines and mills at the beginning of the 20th century, they didn’t travel to countries with large populations of people of color. Even those seeking work, who came willingly, saw signs that read, “No Irish need apply.”

We like to believe we are a welcoming nation. But our treatment of those wishing to contribute to our greatness is questionable. We boast that we are better than other nations with our laws and policies on immigration and border control. Today’s humanitarian crisis on our southern border tells a different story.

Will leaders of mostly white Westmoreland County give serious thought to welcoming immigrants as he suggests? I’m not holding my breath.

Glenn R. Plummer

Unity