In response to Sue Lavin’s “Immigrant License Money Needed” letter in the March 11 issue, I’d just like to clarify a couple of points:

1. Immigrants “without documents” aren’t really “undocumented immigrants” as immigrants, by definition, have gone through a process to immigrate, and part of that process is the issuance of documents to authorize their presence in my country.

2. I realize that “illegal immigrant” and “illegal alien” are pejorative, hurtful and bordering on hate speech, but consider that between June 6 and June 11, 1944, the Allied forces invading Normandy numbered approximately 326,000 troops. If that was an invading force, how should we accurately describe between 11 million and 20 million storming our southern border, occupying our country and draining our resources?

All those “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” are an invading army Balkanizing our country and turning what was once “a shining city on a hill” into yet another third world cesspool like the one they left.

I hope to hear back from Ms. Lavin on this as I’ve lived and worked in Germany as an expatriate, jumped through all the hoops, obtained the appropriate visas, learned the language, paid taxes, obeyed the law and was never told to “Druck eins für Deutsch” when making a phone call to a business or government office, so it’s one of my pet issues.

Neal Pollack

Carbondale