Carl Shusterman

Like many other spouses of undocumented immigrants, Gina Pope constantly worries that her husband suddenly could be deported and that she would be left to raise their two children by herself. Pope, a U.S. citizen, wants to apply for him to get a green card but knows that would mean his traveling to his native Peru, with the risk of not returning for months or years. Now, after more than a decade of waiting for the immigration rules to change, Pope is cautiously optimistic that her husband, who owns a residential construction business and has a temporary work permit, may finally be able to become a legal resident.

Like many other spouses of undocumented immigrants, Gina Pope constantly worries that her husband suddenly could be deported and that she would be left to raise their two children by herself. Pope, a U.S. citizen, wants to apply for him to get a green card but knows that would mean his traveling to his native Peru, with the risk of not returning for months or years. Now, after more than a decade of waiting for the immigration rules to change, Pope is cautiously optimistic that her husband, who owns a residential construction business and has a temporary work permit, may finally be able to become a legal resident.

Re "The cost of citizenship may go up," Oct. 29 Fees for processing citizenship papers will be oppressive for "lower-income, less-educated immigrants." Who wants "lower-income, less-educated immigrants" as citizens anyway? We do not need more welfare, uncompensated healthcare, English-as-a-secondlanguage programs, public housing or prisons. Our country has many unemployed citizens, low-income senior citizens, sick citizens without health insurance and other low/modest/middle-income people who have earned the care and attention of our government.

Re "The cost of citizenship may go up," Oct. 29 Fees for processing citizenship papers will be oppressive for "lower-income, less-educated immigrants." Who wants "lower-income, less-educated immigrants" as citizens anyway? We do not need more welfare, uncompensated healthcare, English-as-a-secondlanguage programs, public housing or prisons. Our country has many unemployed citizens, low-income senior citizens, sick citizens without health insurance and other low/modest/middle-income people who have earned the care and attention of our government.

I was pleased to see your editorial "Bush vs. Clinton: What Would Be Best Immigration Policy?" (Oct. 26). Immigration policy has been almost totally ignored by the presidential candidates. The editorial properly places the issue of immigration against a broader background of trade agreements, foreign policy and the need for economic development in Third World countries. As an attorney who worked for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service prior to entering private practice, I believe that the steps advocated by The Times would go a long way toward solving some critical immigration problems.

When I read that 111,794 illegal aliens were deported in the past year, including more than 50,000 criminals (Oct. 31), the absurdity of the statement overwhelmed me. If 111,794 illegal aliens were deported in the last year, then the number of criminals deported was far above the 50,000 you reported; in fact, precisely 111,794 criminals were deported. Illegal aliens are, in fact, criminals. Illegal presence in the United States by a foreign national is a federal crime. When is The Times going to perceive the overwhelming, documented evidence and recognize illegal immigration for the enormous problem it actually is?

Re "Physician, Remake Thyself," Jan. 10: There is little that the government of the Philippines can do to dissuade its physicians from becoming nurses in order to immigrate to the United States. As an immigration attorney who has helped many thousands of physicians and nurses immigrate to the U.S. over the last 20 years, I have observed that the severe nursing shortage in the U.S., as well as the economic disparities between the two countries, make this all but inevitable. Since U.S. hospitals benefit significantly from RNs trained in the Philippines, it's time for our country to invest in the training of Filipino nurses.

WASHINGTON - Illegal immigrants who are immediate relatives of American citizens will have an easier path to permanent residency under a new Obama administration rule that could affect as many as 1 million of the estimated 11 million people unlawfully in the United States. The rule issued Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security aims to reduce the time illegal immigrants are separated from their U.S. families while seeking legal status, officials said. Beginning March 4, illegal immigrants who can demonstrate that time apart from an American spouse, child or parent would create "extreme hardship" can apply for a visa without leaving the United States.

Jenny and Jason Messam couldn't be more different: She is white and Jewish; he is black and Christian. At 38, she is 15 years older. There is one other important difference: Jenny is American, and Jason is Jamaican. They married in January 2010, and Jason applied for a U.S. visa a few months later, hoping to join his wife in Los Angeles. Immigration officials in the U.S. initially approved the petition. But workers at the U.S. Embassy in Jamaica were suspicious and, after interviewing the couple and sifting through phone records, pictures, emails and other documentation, they decided that the marriage was probably a fraud.

Filipino exchange teacher Ferdinand Nakila landed in Los Angeles expecting "Pretty Woman" scenes of swank Beverly Hills boulevards and glittering celebrities. What he got was Inglewood, where he stayed for two weeks in temporary housing and encountered drunkards, beggars, trash-filled streets and nightly police sirens. It got worse.

Re "Physician, Remake Thyself," Jan. 10: There is little that the government of the Philippines can do to dissuade its physicians from becoming nurses in order to immigrate to the United States. As an immigration attorney who has helped many thousands of physicians and nurses immigrate to the U.S. over the last 20 years, I have observed that the severe nursing shortage in the U.S., as well as the economic disparities between the two countries, make this all but inevitable. Since U.S. hospitals benefit significantly from RNs trained in the Philippines, it's time for our country to invest in the training of Filipino nurses.

When I read that 111,794 illegal aliens were deported in the past year, including more than 50,000 criminals (Oct. 31), the absurdity of the statement overwhelmed me. If 111,794 illegal aliens were deported in the last year, then the number of criminals deported was far above the 50,000 you reported; in fact, precisely 111,794 criminals were deported. Illegal aliens are, in fact, criminals. Illegal presence in the United States by a foreign national is a federal crime. When is The Times going to perceive the overwhelming, documented evidence and recognize illegal immigration for the enormous problem it actually is?

I was pleased to see your editorial "Bush vs. Clinton: What Would Be Best Immigration Policy?" (Oct. 26). Immigration policy has been almost totally ignored by the presidential candidates. The editorial properly places the issue of immigration against a broader background of trade agreements, foreign policy and the need for economic development in Third World countries. As an attorney who worked for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service prior to entering private practice, I believe that the steps advocated by The Times would go a long way toward solving some critical immigration problems.

Teresa Watanabe's excellent article "A Lifelong Lesson in Justice" (Feb. 5) tells the story of white teachers in World War II internment camps for Japanese Americans. I hope more Americans will learn about the terrible injustice that our country perpetuated on persons of Japanese ancestry -- immigrants and U.S. citizens alike -- during World War II. When I attended high school in the L.A. Unified School District in the 1960s, the internment camps were not even mentioned in our history textbooks.

An important item was missing from Mary Williams Walsh's article ("A Big Dose of Family Medicine," July 16) about family medicine in the U.S. and Canada. Because Canada has an excess of family practitioners while the U.S. is experiencing a severe shortage, a federal law was enacted in 1991 to make it easier for Canadian doctors to obtain temporary visas to practice medicine in the U.S. Although many of these Canadian physicians have obtained state licenses and signed contracts to work in medically underserved rural areas, a combination of bureaucratic inertia and red tape is acting to undermine the new law. Until such time as U.S. medical schools begin to produce enough family practitioners to serve the needs of our population, we should be welcoming with open arms any qualified Canadian family doctor who wishes to practice in the U.S. CARL SHUSTERMAN Board of Governors American Immigration Lawyers Assn.