To the editor:

The June 5 column by Cal Thomas about the pending congressional immigration bill completely lacks historical perspective.

Hispanics are not ordinary immigrants, but they mostly come from adjoining Mexico. In the 1830s, American frontiersmen took Texas by force from Mexico, establishing the Republic of Texas. Texas was later annexed by the United States. In 1848, at the end of the Mexican War, the United States forced Mexico to cede the huge southwestern land domain that now constitutes all or part of the states of New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado. Should Mexicans really be expected to respect the Rio Grande boundary and its westward extension to the Pacific?

We Anglos should know that Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, was settled by the Spanish in the 1500s before the English settled Jamestown in 1607 and Plymouth in 1620. Spanish city names cover California: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, etc.

The Democratic governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, who is partly Hispanic, has announced that he is a Democratic presidential candidate. Interestingly, in the 2004 congressional election in Colorado, Democrat Ken Salazar was elected a U.S. senator and his brother, Democrat John Salazar, was elected as one of Colorado’s U.S. representatives. When my family lived in Colorado, we enjoyed the friendship of many delightful Hispanics.

I pray that a bipartisan congressional coalition will be able to pass an immigration bill legalizing most Hispanics living within the United States.

John A. Bond,

Lawrence