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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 13, 1992                   TAG: 9202130552
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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OPEN U.S. BORDERS TO BILLIONS OF PEOPLE?

REGARDING your Feb. 4 editorial ("`Give me your poor' - except Haitians"): Do you propose to open our borders to the billions of people around the globe who are in the same boat? Why is Haiti a special case?

While all people of good will sympathize with the plight of these people, we must address the serious problems that already exist in the United States, without adding to them. This is not the age of unrestricted immigration into a new country waiting to be developed.

It is easy enough to write such strident editorials from the comfort of offices in Roanoke, where few of these mostly illiterate and non-English-speaking people will tend to settle. The American people residing in Florida and along the Mexican-U.S. border surely have a different viewpoint. PATRICK J. TRAVIS PULASKI

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