Letter stereotyped illegal aliens

To the editor:

In his letter, D. Ross states that one of the first things illegal aliens do "is obtain some kind of ID and head straight to the welfare office. They can get a work permit and come here legally and then file for citizenship, but that's too easy." That is an ignorant stereotype.

Do you know how difficult it is to enter this country legally? I have studied abroad twice in the last year in different parts of Mexico. The second time I traveled there, I had a professor whose son was married to an American woman. She had been denied a visa to visit her son twice. She didn't want to move to the United States. She had no desire to. She just wanted to visit her granddaughters.

The people who risk their lives to enter this country aren't doing it on a whim, and they aren't asking for a handout. These are desperate people. I'm not advocating illegal entry, but the gross misrepresentation of an entire group of people could not go unanswered.

JUSTIN ROOT, Cape Girardeau