Many, like myself, have been refused work because of race, gender and/or age, regardless of our work experience. I worked farms in Canada. I’ve had jobs in cleaning, animal care, restaurant, hospitality and retail in both the United States and Canada, and I have a four-year university degree. I have been refused work for which I qualify and have persisted, working two or three jobs at a time to get by.

One plant nursery owner advertising in The Star for a cashier/sales position in the county told me, after listening to my experience with farms and plants/trees, that he needed someone "with a Ph.D." The next week, the ad was still in the paper with no mention of the requisite "Ph.D."

This goes on every day in the United States with legal U.S. citizens being refused jobs in construction, hospitality, farm and other industries. What happened to the story of local “legals� lining up for the Swift meatpacking plant jobs after the place was raided and illegals lost their jobs there? Where are the stories about a severely underemployed middle class in America? Where are the stories about jobs high school kids used to take or other workers entering the workforce and working their way up? You'd think, industrially, America just “happened.� How was this great country ever built in the first place?

I am an American citizen of European ancestry who lived 30 years in Canada and whose family members served in four wars. Shame on this society today for ignoring the truth and upholding lies and wrong behavior! We will all pay.

— Leigh Cohen, Oxnard