Prescott Valley, AZ Correspondent-The only way that society will lose its fear, distrust and apprehension about immigrants from different races, religions or ethnic groups is when immigration laws for both legal and illegal immigrants are fully enforced and legal immigration is reduced to manageable numbers.

Every government has an obligation and responsibility to its own citizens. Allowing untold numbers of illegal and legal immigrants into a country is irresponsible and unlawful. A certain quality of life must be sustained for future generations of Americans and without a balanced system of legal immigration and an end to illegal immigration, those standards cannot be maintained.

Immigration in excess has affected American citizens and their quality of life, so it is only natural that there is fear and distrust of legal and illegal immigrants of almost any background coming into the United States. For the most part, those feelings are due to a large number of immigrants remaining loyal to their home countries while refusing to assimilate into American culture. Taking jobs from Americans and attaching themselves to social welfare programs while giving little to nothing in return to their surrogate country (America) angers and frustrates a majority of Americans.

Immigrants in the great waves from the late 1800s and beyond were thoroughly vetted, screened, learned the language, made their own way and worked to sustain their families. Immigrants coming into America today, particularly illegals, those on H1-B Visas and other outsourcing programs immediately tap into whatever they can for a free ride on the American taxpayer’s dime. Steps must be ensured to prevent those that are coming into the country on any kind of visa from illegally taking jobs and benefits from Americans plus when their visas expire, they must leave the country.

Americans must be protected from losing wages, their individual freedoms and quality of life because of excessive immigration numbers. In the sense of religious and ethnic groups, there are founded fears with so-called waves of refugees that are coming in from countries that are affiliated with terrorism and criminal activities. Why should Americans not fear those who take over entire communities in the name of Sharia law or the Koran while they impose their will and way of life on everyone around them?

Many Americans fear for their communities because of terrorist activities and horrendous criminal illegal alien activity through Mexican, Central American and South American illegals as well. Despicable crime sprees have destroyed the lives of hundreds of families because of the number of criminal illegals coming and going from America with little to no repercussions for their horrendous crimes perpetrated on Americans on a daily basis

How can distrust, apprehension, and fear not be the norm with so many immigrants having taken advantage and still taking advantage of the current open door/open heart policy in America? Hopefully that is all changing with the new administration and the Department of Justice’s attempts to reign in those who do not belong in the country, but that is a process that will take considerable effort and cooperation by state, county and local law enforcement.

Many officials are trying to hold on to their sanctuary status and their lawless ways of dealing with illegal immigrants rather than comply with the law. They simply refuse to obey immigration laws that have been on the books for years. They are obstructing justice and slapping the majority of the American people in the face while destroying their own communities and the lives of those who live in them.

As long as lawlessness in any form is allowed to go on, fears, mistrust and apprehension will continue to haunt American society. Without the bold support of everyday Americans and pressure put on those in authority, legal and illegal immigration will be a risk that Americans will face. The main factor concerning immigration policy will be choosing the right number of authorized (and vetted) immigrants for the future with caps on any following numbers. Only then, to a degree, will fears subside as those worthy of trust will be given the opportunity to become real Americans.

Owatonna, MN Correspondent-Once again, immigration is at the forefront of world debate in the United States because of the President’s attempted travel bans on citizens from primarily-Muslim countries. Anti-immigrant sentiment boils to the surface every generation or so, going back more than 100 years in the US and decades in other wealthy countries. While the problem is not new other than the countries from which people are migrating, it doesn’t seem like any progress has been made on the question of why “natives” seem to resist “foreigners.”

I think the issue is deeply rooted in our base instincts of distrusting anything new until we are sure it won’t harm us. Prehistoric peoples who traveled to new lands were probably reluctant to try the food they found growing in the ground and in trees, the animals they encountered that may or may not have wanted to harm them, and the tribes of other humans they met who looked different, acted differently, and communicated in “abnormal” ways. One of our base instincts is resistance to change. Life is easier when dealing with known quantities.

Another biological reason we distrust people who are different from us is our survival-of-the-fittest mentality. Any new arrival is seen as competition for all available food, clothing, shelter, and creature comforts. Throughout history, the “easiest” way to deal with “invaders” has been to wage war on them. So, we innately adopt a defensive posture when we encounter someone who we see as a threat to the status quo. Hitler is the prime example of a tyrant who took that concept to the extreme and tried to eradicate entire religious and ethnic groups, along with others seen as non-conforming to his arbitrary norm, such as homosexuals.

This immigration “crisis” will eventually either resolve itself or fade away, and the US will return to some sort of peace with its latest immigrant group. But I doubt the resistance to immigrants will be eradicated from the world until we have intermingled to the extent that we achieve absolute homogeneity. At a minimum, this will happen when every person in the world speaks the same language and has medium-brown skin color. We’ll also need to decide to either practice the same religion or practice no religion. Even then, given the nature of most humans, we will begin to gravitate toward others who are like-minded and restart the whole “distrust of foreigners” debate.

Sheffield Jamaica Correspondent-Resoundingly, there will always be distrust, fear, and apprehension among immigrants, especially from a different ethnic group, religion, and race.

People will always demonstrate apathy toward what they don’t understand. They also fear what’s different. In a comment the now president of the US made, he clearly stated that black people looked fierce and violent. With his and other’s perspective, there will always be this apprehension toward black people.

Religion is also another issue. Fly to Russia or do some research and you’ll realize that Russia is persecuting their own race, simply because they practice a religion that’s different; a religion that does not vote or get involved in political affairs.

Think about those Muslim immigrants. True, there are some extremists who incite acts of terror, but not all Muslims are terrorists.

The reality is, mankind will always have this fear and apprehension of anything that’s different, because they lack love. Love hopes and endures all things. With love, people will actually look beyond skin tones, social standing, religion, and ethnicity. True love brings people together; not divide them.

If you’re ever wondering why this world is in such a devastating state, it’s because as people we lack the love we’re supposed to have. Love conquers all. Love never fails.

Gastonia, NC Correspondent-A certain amount of xenophobia is hard-wired into our primate brain, which makes overcoming discrimination against those markedly different from ourselves a difficult proposition. In our cave-dwelling days, when multiple species of hominids were prowling Pangaea, driving others off from watering holes, sources of prey and shelter was a survival necessity. Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick touched on this in the prologue to “2001: A Space Odyssey” when two groups of proto-humans shrieked and snarled at each other over a watering hole. The monolith gave one of the apes the idea of picking up a bone to use as a weapon, and the balance of power shifted.

Later, when empires rose and fell across Europe, Asia and Africa, the “others” were quite likely members of some conquering horde or another, and had to be met with all available force.

Today, we live in houses instead of yurts, and very few of us still carry bone clubs around for self-defense. But the wiring is still there, and it requires a conscious effort on our part to overcome it. Taken to extremes, and this is a situation longed for by the Legion of the Perpetually Offended, this would lead us to be nearly paralyzed by fear, pondering every word we say and action we take thoroughly for any sign of bias.

That’s simply not going to work. Bias will always be there, or at least will be for the foreseeable future. The best we can hope for is to cure ourselves of its worst effects and to make sure the playing field is leveled in the areas of education, employment and social opportunity. In those respects, we’ve made huge strides, but there are still those among our culture who preach loudly FOR discrimination, who sow fear of “others” and would have us jumping at things that go bump in the demographic statistics. These people should be shunned if they refuse to mend their ways.

In the meantime, I’ll go hit a taco truck for lunch, grab a Jamaican meat pie this evening and go listen to some Indian music.