Immigration rate unsustainable

The unprecedented number of asylum seekers gathering at the border portends a new immigration paradigm. While TV images focus on mothers with children, the caravan trekking by foot and thumb over more than 2,000 miles is constituted mostly of men — 90 to 95 percent by some estimates. Should they succeed in entering the U.S. via sanctuary status or other means, will their expectations be met? America, where for centuries low-skill level workers could find jobs comparable to those they left behind, has undergone mind-numbing change. Today across the country, workers young and old displaced by new technologies are already being retrained to perform tasks — some that may not have even existed a decade ago.

As expected, America will continue to be a nation that welcomes immigrants, but the challenge of assimilating massive unvetted groups seeking admission as evidenced by the 10,000 Central Americans approaching or already at our southern border — plus those who will be emboldened to follow — is unsustainable. They arrive at a time when homelessness, particularly in the large cities that serve as traditional magnets to the new arrivals, is already at epic proportions exacerbated by the effects of spiraling mental illness and drug abuse. Perhaps it’s time for reflection. Beyond established annual immigration quotas is there now a new larger number or has it simply become infinite? Doug Hacker, Denver