U.S. needs immigrants

President Donald Trump, during his press conference following his meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, repeated his threat to shut down the federal government this fall unless Congress delivers on Republican demands to enforce security on the Mexican border and build his long-promised wall (“Trump says he has ‘no problem’ shutting down government over border security, unnerving the GOP,” July 30).

The president again stated that America is the laughingstock of the world. I don’t agree. It is President Trump who is the laughingstock of the world given his erratic and childish behavior, his ridiculous tweets, his numerous extramarital affairs, his self-defeating and destructive trade policies and his constant efforts to destabilize relations with our allies throughout the world. Most egregious are his immigration policies that demonize immigrants and his attempts to stifle immigration into this country.

Mr. Trump forgets that we are an aging country with a low birth rate. Where will we get our future workforce and future contributors into our growing Social Security and retirement liabilities? Clearly, only from those fleeing oppression elsewhere who are coming here seeking a better life. These are the people with the energy and resourcefulness to keep our nation growing. We need them desperately or else we will see the size of our population, our prosperity and world leadership slip from our grasp.