Your editorial endorsing Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire primary states, “It’s inexcusable that 11 million Americans are working in the shadows.’’ I’m a liberal Democrat, I voted for Barack Obama twice, and I find it offensive that you refer to people who are in our country illegally as “Americans.’’

Obama’s first failure on immigration was not pursuing a national mandatory E-Verify. I have not heard Clinton even mention it. Yet a mandatory E-Verify would stop most illegal immigration, and would put millions of unemployed Americans, many of whom have given up looking for jobs, back to work.

Moreover, Obama and the presidential candidates have not even raised the question of how much immigration is good for America. Under President Clinton, the US Commission on Immigration Reform recommended nearly halving legal immigration and strict enforcement of immigration laws. The lack of strict enforcement is what is broken about the immigration system and is why 11 million immigrants are here illegally.

The flood of immigrants is why there is so much hatred in American politics, as MSNBC’s Chris Matthews told WBGH Radio’s Jim Braude and Margery Eagan last year. Indeed, the Democratic Party’s failure to address this problem is what has enabled Donald Trump. Democrats addressing this problem would do to Trump what Delilah did to Sampson when she cut off his hair.

David C. Holzman

Lexington