Those Kids Brought Here Illegally by Their Parents Are Law-Breakers!
I'm so tired of hearing these sob stories involving people who broke the law (Guest Commentary, Aug. 12). For every law on the books, there's a corresponding penalty. The penalty for entering the United States illegally is deportation. It's one of the more simple laws to understand. This goes under the heading, "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time." If you don't want to live in fear of being deported, go back to your home. You created the fear by breaking the law.
The lesson here isn't to stop deporting illegal immigrants because it's hurting families. It's to stop people from breaking into the U.S. illegally. There are millions of people in Mexico who chose not to, because they didn't want to be separated from their families. That's the choice: Break into America and have more material wealth, but risk being separated from your family; or stay in Mexico and be poorer, but have no risk of separation from your family.
If no law was ever enforced because it caused hardships on families, then no law would ever be enforced. Every person who is in jail in America right now has a family that's hurting emotionally from the separation. Keeping your family together should be a big incentive not to break the law.
How about doing a story on the emotional pain caused by illegal immigrants?
Bryan Smith
Want to Build Community? Put a Walmart Downtown!
Regarding your article on Second Saturdays Downtown (Serraglio, Aug. 5), I recognize it's arts and culture's civic duty to once again shoulder the burden of hope for the inner city, but we had a hard time last time around bucking commercial interests during Downtown Saturday Nights. Not that you need art and culture, according to Bruce Ash and the rest of the conservative-radio crowd, but can you really build community with just bread and circuses? Real community-building requires establishments people visit on a daily basis, like Walmarts, McDonald's, strip clubs and casinos. Now you're talking.
Dennis Williams
