Readers Sound Off on Growing Baltimore with Immigrants

Surely our esteemed mayor must be joking!! While I have no problem with foreign citizens wanting to come here, I suggest that they do so LEGALLY, thereby making things simpler for themselves and the rest of us. Why should illegal immigrants be entitled to the same benefits/services that legal residents have to WORK for most of their lives? One thing that really annoys me is her instruction to police and social agencies regarding an immigrant's status. I feel that Ms. Rawlings-Blake should revisit that one.

Is the administration focusing on the "migrants" coming to fill the jobs on APG? All the military personnel, the scientists, and support staff could have their families live in the city and commute via the AmTrak line to Aberdeen.

Best thing to be done with the illegal immigrants is to turn them over to ice so they can be sent back to their countries of origin, where ever it might be. How is the city to jail legal American citizens for any crime, yet allow foreign nationals in to take advantage of goods and services that belong to American people? Baltimore should be concentrating their efforts on legal residents, not illegal invaders

Of course the Mayor should focus on attracting immigrants to Baltimore City. The great cities of the Northeast were built and populated by immigrants. It is the only way Baltimore is going to have any chance at a comeback. But the Mayor will have to do more to keep the new residents because, just like the old immigrants, once they climb the ladder and can afford to move they will.

If the mayor wants to grow the city's population, why not do it the right way - compete for legal citzens living in the counties. You have to be able to offer something -lower crime, lower taxes, better schools. Good Luck!

Baltimore has always been a city of migrants, people looking to work and better themselves: Polish, Irish, Germans, Italians and Greeks from Europe; African-Americans from the rural South; Scotch-Irish from Appalachia; Pennsylvanians, especially from Pittsburgh; and more recently, immigrants from Asia, Africa, Central America and South America. Doesn't matter where they come from, what language they speak, whether they have or don't have certain legal documents. Migrants have always bolstered the growth and economic prosperity of Baltimore, to the benefit of one and all. Now more than ever, it's a no-brainer. All big cities want more people, more energy, more business. Everyone benefits.

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dennisthecynic If they do a good job of caring for the residents here, new ones will come. A shame they've failed to get this to date..

bmoreslumwatch I find the idea of shilling for new residents a little...distasteful. What about those of us who already live here?

bosconet let's not forget the waves of Irish, German, and Italians that flocked to the city in the 19th & 20 the centuries.