A favorite theme of one of your regular columnists is the evil of illegal immigration. He regularly accuses undocumented immigrants of failing to wait for legal entry, unlike our European ancestors, of taking jobs away from Americans, of getting social services at the expense of American taxpayers, and– of all things!– of failing to apply for citizenship. It’s time to say a few things once and for all.

Undocumented immigrants can’t apply for citizenship. Neither can people here on a work-permit, a category of workers your columnist seems not to recognize, although it includes the “dreamers.”

“Americans” don’t want the kind of work most of these people do – in agriculture, in care of the elderly, in poultry-processing plants; the immigrants wouldn’t come here if there weren’t employers offering them work.

Employers deduct payroll taxes from all employees on their rolls, but undocumented immigrants will never collect the social security they pay for. They don’t qualify for Medicaid or workmen’s compensation. At most, they might have children in our not-overcrowded local schools.

Our European ancestors didn’t come here illegally, because there was no such thing in their time. When my grandparents arrived in Ellis Island, all they had to do was pass the doctor’s quick exam to show that they didn’t have tuberculosis or eye infections.

Your columnist’s racist bias in favor of white people is not acceptable. People of color have made great contributions to our economy, culture, knowledge, and political life despite the horrible discrimination most of them have had to overcome to do so. It shouldn’t be necessary to say this.

Minda Rae Amiran is a Fredonia resident.