Ryan Masse's opinion piece "'Immigration rights' demonstrators lack credible message" (April 13, 2006), contains a number of interesting arguments.

It's interesting, for example, that Masse chooses to blame the low wages of unskilled workers on immigrants instead of the fact that the minimum wage is at its lowest level since 1954.

It's interesting that he blames undocumented workers for rising health-care costs instead of the pharmaceutical companies' practice of spending more than $13 billion on advertising and administration, while less than half of that on research and development.

But what was most interesting, in my opinion, was Masse's repeated emphasis on the illegality of undocumented immigration. While he makes a persuasive case for the rule of law, I think the phrasing of the Rev. Dr. Dewey of New York is somewhat more eloquent. Dewey wrote that "he would go himself into slavery, or send his brother, his son, or even his mother back into the house of bondage, rather than by disobeying the law, help to subvert the authority of government and undermine the foundation of those powers which God ordained of us as a nation."

Dewey was writing in slightly different context than Mr. Masse. Instead of supporting immigration laws, he was supporting the Fugitive Slave Law in the 1850s. Mr. Masse's argument has a long and distinguished history.

It's a history, however, which is clearly not without its problems. Fetishizing the law in the way Mr. Masse does takes issues of legality out of any moral context whatsoever. Arguing that illegal immigration is wrong because it's illegal is no different from those like Rev. Dr. Dewey who defended slavery because it was legal.

If Mr. Masse wants to argue that undocumented workers should be treated like criminals, he should come up with some arguments that place him in better company. Leaving aside for the moment the unsubstantiated innuendos mentioned at the beginning of this letter, Mr. Masse's main contention was that the protesters failed to display the requisite number of American flags. His failure to produce any arguments that go beyond mere intellectual eructations displays the bankruptcy of the "criminalize immigrants" position.

Paul Heideman
UW senior