Despite recent highly publicized "busts" like the janitorial workers at Wal-Mart, enforcement actions against employers have plummeted under Republican leadership. In 1999, the federal government initiated fines against 417 companies for employing illegal workers. In 2004, it issued fine notices to only three, according to the June 16 edition of the Washington Post.

You can pretty much date our current immigration problem to 1986. No, not because Elton Gallegly was elected to Congress that year, but because of Ronald Reagan's amnesty program — part of his larger campaign to bust American labor unions. He gave employers the green light to hire immigrants and encouraged them to stay on as year-round residents.

It worked. Unions now have just a fraction of their former clout in the workplace, and American wages have been spiraling downward for two decades. Unfortunately, unions were far more effective at keeping illegal immigrants out of the workplace than the Immigration and Naturalization Service or the employers.

Before you cast your vote in November, ask yourself this: In the 20 years Gallegly has been keeping his "firm stance" against illegal immigration, have things gotten better or worse? Doesn't it make sense that the Democratic Party, with its historic ties to American labor, would be more motivated to solve this problem than the party of the low-wage employers?

— John Johnson, Ventura