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OPINIONS
[ Friday, Sept. 28, 2001 ]

Letter to the Editor
Immigrants can't be excluded after attack

"Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses" is just one part of the immigration policy that is emblazoned on the Statue of Liberty and that is set forth by our country. One of our basic principles in this country is to offer opportunity to immigrants living in less fortunate conditions. Therefore, the suggestion made by Scott Fredd to simply "not let them into our country" is one that goes against the basic principles of the United States. Fredd would like us to tighten our customs policies by providing "Schwarzenegger-type" agents to thoroughly go over paperwork. However, he is not suggesting we do this to everyone entering the country, just people with names like "Mohammed" that are not citizens of the United States. Just because we suspect these recent attackers to have been Arabs, we cannot go around accusing every Arab who wants to enter our country of being anti-United States, and even worse, a terrorist. The major problem with Arab-United States relations is that Arab nations feel that the United States doesn't treat them fairly. These new policies that Fredd suggests will do nothing to help this situation. This is not a war that can be won through simple military action; we must educate and help the people who are against our country. We must gain the support and trust of the Middle East if we want to win this abstract war against the idea of terrorism, which will not happen if we adopt prejudice policies.

Eileen LaFauci
freshman-business
 



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