Regarding Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto’s support for the American Dream and Promise Act (“Peduto endorses bill to provide pathway to citizenship for ‘dreamers’,” March 15, TribLIVE): He’s conveniently confused on his facts. Peduto compares the deferred action for childhood arrivals (DACAs) to Pittsburgh’s immigrants who “settled here seeking to build a new future for themselves and their families.” Those early immigrants arrived in the U.S. legally, whereas the DACAs did not.
But what Peduto also disregarded is the need for an offset should Congress pass the proposed American Dream and Promise Act legislation. Most important is mandatory E-Verify, which would ensure U.S. jobs would be held only by legally present immigrants and U.S. citizens. Had Congress passed E-Verify in previous years, the current border crisis could have been less severe because the jobs magnet that encourages most illegal immigration would have been eliminated.
Joe Guzzardi
Bradford Woods