It's late and I'm still awake so I'll add my two cents on this. Illegal immigration is a very complicated issue. There are no easy solutions.

These workers cut our grass, clean our toilets, cook our food and wash our dishes, yet we complain when our schools educate their children and our emergency rooms treat their illnesses. If we take advantage of their labor we should be willing to offer them services.

While some believe we are losing out on the taxes that illegals don't pay, that's just not true. Even the groups that strongly oppose illegal immigration acknowledge that the amount of taxes they would pay is insignificant. People who make minimum wage or slightly more and support families don't pay taxes under our system. If anything, they probably would qualify for the earned income credit if they paid taxes and we would be paying them money.

Even though there are social and economic problems with illegal immigrants I truly believe they do not come to our country to live off of our welfare system. They come for jobs and a better life. The woman who cleans my house (who is here semi-legally) sends money back to support her family in Colombia and her teenage daughter whom she has not seen in seven years.

Unemployment in this country now is very low. In places like Washington, DC where I live there simply is no unemployment. The illegals are filling a void. We recently had a new driveway, walkway and landscaping done at our home. Not one of the workers spoke English. All were Hispanic immigrants. They were not taking jobs away from Americans. There are no Americans in my area willing to do that work.

Because the job market here is so tight, we have day laborers. I have met some of them. They are not loiterers but they do hang out on street corners looking for work. They are trying to support their families as best as they can. And they are often victimized by their employers who cheat them. If they choose to use library computers to try to better themselves, I guess there are worse places they could be than in the library.

Some illegal immigrants have formed gangs. But we shouldn't forget than some Italian, Irish and Jewish immigrants who came here many years ago became criminals and went into organized crime.

I'm sure I've come across sounding more liberal than I really am. We can't allow illegal immigration to continue at its current pace. Something has to be done but I don't think we can throw out the folks who already are here. We can throw out the criminals. The rest we can treat with compassion and respect and remember that our parents and grandparents were immigrants too, albeit legal ones. Thanks. Tom.