The community of Fremont, Nebraska, is considering a city ordinance which will make illegal immigrants unwelcome within its city limits. In response to this action, the Nebraska Mexican-American Commision said it was disappointed with “racial and anti-immigrant remarks” and urged denunciation of “racism and intolerance.”

I, for one, am tired of hearing the words racism and intolerance hauled out every time some group advocates philosophies and actions which defy reason. Here is a community that is willing to do what our federal government is seemingly unwilling to do – defend itself from a foreign invasion. The Constitution supposedly lists national defense as one legitimate role of the federal government, but that government is not doing its job against invaders on foot who are willing to do gardening at substandard wages.

What does this nation really stand for? Aren’t we supposed to be the shining light for freedom and opportunity? We welcome immigrants all the time, but when we take them in, we want to know who they are and why they are here. Among other things, we don’t want them to be abused by people who take advantage of their undocumented status to pay them undocumented wages which would be illegal and immoral if paid to a person with legal status.

There are other reasons to put a stop to illegal immigration. In the USA we have laws which rightly prohibit hospitals from denying treatment to people who need it. It would be completely inhumane to do otherwise. However, a community inundated by illegal immigrants may also discover that its hospital has been inundated by illegal immigrants who are not able to pay for the care they receive. They don’t have insurance, and they don’t have money. The money they earn is inadequate for the family at the outset, and a lot of that money goes back to Mexico, so when they get sick or have babies or have other health issues, their only recourse is to force a hospital to provide free healthcare.

Who pays for this free healthcare? We, the legitimate citizens and legal immigrants, pay the bill. We pay it in higher healthcare premiums for our own insurance, because the hospital charges must be adjusted upward to compensate for the patients who cannot pay. We pay it if we have no insurance and must pay our bills ourselves. We pay it in higher taxes because Medicaid is charged more due to the costs incurred for non-paying patients. I could go on, but I will move to a new subject.

Illegal immigration also overwhelms school systems. Public schools in this country were a statement by the early citizens that education is very important in a free society. They had the idea that knowledge of reading and writing, along with a broad education in the arts, history, science and math would be important skills for free enterprise and wise voting. Historically we have all agreed with that concept, and as free people voting within a representative government, we tax ourselves to pay for schools for the children of citizens and legal immigrants. Advocates of illegal immigration think we are pretty cheap when we don’t want to tax ourselves even more in order to provide education for the children of illegal immigrants.

This whole problem overflows into all corners of our economy and our culture. The very idea that our citizens might need to learn Spanish in order to communicate effectively with illegal immigrants, who don’t even belong here, is preposterous. Let all the immigrants learn to speak English, and let the illegals go back to some place that speaks the language they want to hear.

I consider myself to be tolerant and sympathetic to many human problems. I have sympathy for people who want to come to the US but can’t get in legally. They aren’t getting what they want. But I don’t believe everybody can or should get what he wants. There are very good reasons to manage immigration. There are good reasons to control the pace and the volume of immigration. Who knows? Maybe if we dig deep enough, we will find that illegal immigrants are part of the reason we have economic issues in our country today. How much of our local, state and national budget crises can be traced to illegal immigration overwhelming all sorts of public services?

I completely support legal immigration. I completely reject the idea of tolerating illegal immigration. I believe that most thoughtful citizens agree with me. It isn't racism. I don't make any distinction related to race, which is, by the way, a fake kind of classification. It is intolerance, but it is very wise intolerance, the same kind of intolerance I show to a snake who has slithered into my house. How do we get this stopped? Fremont, Nebraska, is on the right track.