One can count on the Rev. Allan Ramirez to exploit any opportunity to push the interests of illegal immigrants and promote their ongoing invasion of the United States. His July 27 letter uses the recent firebombing of a house inhabited by illegal aliens in Farmingville to castigate the local citizens as violent and raise the cry of racism.

If the firebombing was an attack on a family for being illegals, the act is reprehensible and those involved should suffer the full consequences of the law. Such an act would also be manifestation of the frustration and rage felt by hard-working, tax-paying Americans who are betrayed by every level of American government -- local, state and, most importantly, federal -- when it comes to defending America's borders and protecting its citizens from the illegal aliens.

The real issue is not race or color. It is numbers, cost and crime.

In a recent conversation, a contractor stated that the number of day workers, mostly illegal, congregating in Farmingville may reach 1,000 on some days. Large numbers throw trash around, urinate publicly and harass women. Indeed, in neighborhoods throughout the Island that have seen the appearance of hordes of day laborers, the quality of life has declined for American citizens, and property values of nearby neighborhoods have fallen as well.

The illegal workers certainly are cheaper than native-born Americans, but the value of the menial jobs most perform -- landscaping, unskilled labor -- is exceeded by the real costs of their presence -- overpopulated schools, larger classes and more expenditure for bilingual and special-ed programs. Illegals commonly use food stamps and other forms of welfare, driving up these costs, and they have been major users of public health allocations and emergency medical services, all of which translate into higher taxes, which few of them pay. The landscapers and construction companies are well satisfied with their cheap labor because they can shunt off the real costs to everyone else.