Letters to the Editor. Mexico and immigration reform

A purpose of the pending immigration reform legislation now moving through Congress is to keep non-visaed Mexicans out of our country. In view of the devastating earthquakes in Mexico, it would be insensitive for Congress to enact legislation at this time to penalize the hiring of undocumented Mexicans.

Millions of Mexicans cannot get visas because they are unable to present evidence of job and financial status acceptable to our consular officials. Thus, if they wish to visit the United States, they must do so illegally.

Our biggest immigration problem is the monitoring of aliens after they enter the US so as to ensure their timely departure. It is almost impossible to monitor aliens who enter illegally. To discourage Mexicans from doing so, we need to devise a system that would allow short-term visits by those who cannot qualify for visas under our present policy.

Congress could very well consider amnesty legislation at this time, deferring employer sanctions until circumstances are more propitious. Meanwhile, it is to be hoped that a more workable immigration control bill could be drafted. E. M. Giles San Antonio

Your Moscow correspondent repeated one of the most deeply entrenched myths about the Russian communists when he credited them with the overthrow of the czar [``Why Soviets restore Czarist splendor to Leningrad,'' Sept. 4]. The czarist regime, already moribund, collapsed in February (old Julian calendar) 1917. It was succeeded by the provisional government headed by Kerensky. Lenin then returned to Russia in April, and the Bolsheviks seized the Winter Palace on Oct. 25 (Julian calendar again, hence the ``October Revolution,'' which is now commemorated in November). In late 1917, elections were held. The Bolsheviks garnered less than one-quarter of the vote, and the Socialist Revolutionary Party won a plurality. Democracy i n Russia was given the coup de gr^ace in January 1918, when the Bolsheviks seized control of the Constituent Assembly on the day it convened. From that armed seizure on, the ``Bolsheviks'' have ruled the Soviet Union with violence. They have had countless victims over the decades, but the overthrow of the czar was not one of their victories. Mark Hendrickson New Wilmington, Pa.

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