To the editor:

Robert M. Tyler’s March 15 letter “Modern slavery,” on the exploitation of immigrant workers by unscrupulous employers, is good, but he confuses matters by using the word “illegal.” It is “legal,” for both employers and workers, for immigrants to be recruited in Latin America under the H-2 Guest Worker program with lies about the jobs, pay and working conditions they’ll have, to be charged hefty upfront fees and to be housed in barracks with their passports confiscated.

Here’s an example, from the Democracy Now Web site, of the effect on U.S. jobs and wages: African-American restaurant kitchen workers in New Orleans were paid $10 an hour, but they were fired and replaced by illegal immigrants at $8, who in turn were fired and replaced by “legal” H-2 workers at $6.

Our whole economy is hurt by the H-2 program and the abuses it allows. It needs to be abolished or changed. Let’s target the real problem.

William Scott, Lawrence