Editor:

In response to Ernest Luning’s Colorado Statesman article on May 15, “Business, Agriculture Groups Call for Immigration Solutions from GOP,” I have a very simple solution.

Instead of bringing people from other countries to work in the U.S., we need to put U.S. citizens to work first. There are over 93 million citizens looking for work.

There are tens of thousands citizens just in Colorado who receive unemployment money and food stamps. These people should be working instead of receiving free money from us that are working. The jobs in Ernst’s article pay over $11.00 per hour.

I do not know about you, but in my youth, while going to high school and college, I did all kind of manual labor jobs. It was good for me and it gave me money to go to college on.

No one should receive money from others who are working if there are jobs available and they are physically able to work.

I have a small business that is forced to send thousands of dollars every year to the CO State Unemployment Office so the government can distribute it to those who are not working.

This is a ridiculous concept that needs to be greatly curtailed. If I had that money in my business, I could hire some one to work rather than be forced to send the money to the state and federal governments to give to those not working.

Former state Rep. Jim WelkerHouse District 51Lovelandjwelker@uccweb.com