Letter to the Editor, NYT (unpublished)

To the Editor:

I was glad to note the skeptical tone of your editorial on Mr. Bush's changing discourse on immigration ("Bush on the Border," April 11). After all, it's one thing to call for "a practical answer," but something else entirely to make concrete, non-exploitative proposals. But this issue is important less for legislative reasons, as you point out, than for human rights concerns. In the Bay Area alone, as the San Francisco Bay Guardian recently reported, hundreds of immigrants have been (at times violently) deported over the last few months, severing families and sowing fear in the community. Abstract language from above will not change the reality on the ground.

Daniel Nemser
San Francisco, CA