I would like to respond to John G. Bailey's letter accusing Del. Pat McDonough of scapegoating illegal immigrants for his complaint that Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and President Barack Obama are turning Baltimore into an amnesty city ("McDonough offers his usual scapegoat: immigrants," Dec. 21).

I can only use anecdotal evidence, but since this summer I've seen various neighbors have a deck enclosed, a fence erected, landscaping planted and a new parking pad created, and in every case, the work was done by Hispanic immigrants working for white-owned companies.

Whether these workers are Illegal immigrants or not, the point is that these are plainly jobs Americans are willing to do. A co-worker's boyfriend has been told by his construction company employer they have no work for him for the past nine months. Yet he regularly sees this company's work sites peopled with Hispanic immigrants.

So Delegate McDonough was not "scapegoating" anyone. He was trying to assure the state was not attracting people to take away yet more work from Maryland residents. And what could be more on point to saving the middle class and employing minorities?

As for education, what could be more helpful than assuring all employed individuals pay full taxes to help finance the cost of education?

Michelle Alston, Baltimore