Letter: Opening borders never a good idea

In the first place, we don't have any real idea of how many illegal aliens are currently in our country. The 11.3 million listed is a straw man, based on estimates, since no real figures exist. We can count the number of illegals briefly detained by the Border Patrol, but even that organization admits that they are only a small fraction of the total number of people crossing our southern border.

We should more reasonably rely on the empirical evidence that is before our very eyes and ears. Even in very small towns and cities that are far from the border, one must only listen to the number of Spanish speakers and observe the number of Hispanics in the general population to realize that the number of illegals is much higher than the current administration and national media would have us believe.

In addition, the number of Mexicans coming or returning is far outweighed by those coming from virtually all of the Central American countries and elsewhere.

Finally, opening our borders to everyone who knocks on the door just to boost our available workforce isn't such a good idea. Ask the people from Scandinavia, France and Germany, particularly the young women, how that concept is working out for them lately.

Al Francis

This story was originally published February 5, 2016 at 4:04 PM with the headline "Letter: Opening borders never a good idea."