Our immigration system is broken; that much everyone can agree upon. Throughout this election we have heard the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, state that by building a wall we can stop the flood of immigrants entering this country illegally.

Eduardo Porter would disagree with this solution. He wrote in an article for the New York Times that he believes that instead of higher walls and more security that we need to include a gate in that wall. He believes that if there were a legal process that allowed immigrants to come here and legally work, it would reduce the illegal movement of immigrants. He highlights the success of the Bracero Program in the 1940s and 1950s that provided some 400,000 workers visas to immigrants that worked on farms in the United States. This program saw the number of people apprehended for entering the country illegally plummet to near zero.

While we can’t eliminate immigrants coming to our country, I believe as Eduardo believes, that we can manage the problem. I would like to call Representatives Steve Stivers (OH District 15) and Bill Johnson (OH District 6) as well as Ohio Senators Rob Portman and Sherrod Brown to publicly call for bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform that provides a legal pathway for citizenship allowing for immigrants to live and work in the United States legally.

Mathew Hursey

Wilmington