To the editor:

One of the issues that seems to be in the forefront of all campaigns this year is that of “illegal” immigration. What we have among candidates are progressives who have never met a regulation they did not like versus populists who have never met an immigrant they did not like.

As a conservative, I am wary of regulations, knowing that while some are necessary, many are merely protectionist and contrary to the health of a commercial society. Some, as well, are outside the delegation of powers in Article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution of the United States and those amendments that specify powers. As a conservative, I also am quite aware that the immigration of my ancestors was not always by the book – the standards were lower in those days.

I also would point out that undocumented workers built the transcontinental railroad, ran the cattle to market and built the most powerful economic country in the world. This was mostly in the days before massive regulation. Anti-immigrant sentiment was predominant among adherents of the Know Nothings, the Nativists, the populists and the Ku Klux Klan.

Earl L. Haehl,

Lawrence