Judge Blocks Prop. 187

Re “U.S. Judge Blocks Most Sections of Prop. 187,” Dec. 15: From the riots to the welfare lines, Southern California has just been one big, open, free market for illegal aliens. A majority of us in California voted to stop this travesty and hopefully reverse it. I guess this is more proof that my vote doesn’t count.

We don’t want anybody to go hungry, we don’t want anybody to go uneducated or uncared-for. We just want everybody who is here illegally to go home! And if you’re in that foreign country thinking about coming here illegally, don’t! The free-for-all is over!

In the late ‘60s and ‘70s, there was a big to-do in this country for zero population growth. If the heads of our neighboring countries would pull their heads out of the ground maybe they could initiate a similar ideology. I don’t think the results we see now are what we intended back then.

REID CAMPBELL

Culver City

Prop. 187 merely mandates that which many state and local officials did voluntarily before Prop. 187, which was to verify the immigration status of any arrestee suspected of being illegally in this country, just as they presently verify whether or not any arrestee has any outstanding international, federal or local warrants out for their arrest. When it was ascertained that a suspect was here illegally, agencies reported that to the INS. They can still do so, despite U.S. District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer’s ruling, because all her ruling does is enjoin the state from making it mandatory.

If state and local authorities can do it voluntarily, how can it be that the state cannot make it mandatory? If a police officer verifies whether a person is wanted as a lawbreaker, what is so onerous about an officer verifying whether a person has broken our immigration laws and reporting any such violations?

One might ask why Prop. 187 made it mandatory when it was already being done voluntarily. That was because there were some city councils which encouraged illegal immigration by prohibiting their officers from reporting anyone who they arrested and who was illegally in this country.

JACK ALLEN

Pacific Palisades

Re your editorial, “Stopping a Monster Camel in Its Tracks,” Dec. 16:

No matter how often you and other members of the liberal elite repeat your tired assertion that the way to deal with illegal immigration is to somehow stop it at the border--a feat which even the most unimaginative realize is impossible--we the people are not going to accept it. As long as individuals capable of earning only the minimum wage or less--about $9,000 a year--know that all they have to do to guarantee a “free” $5,000-a-year education for each of their children is to somehow make it across our vast borders, they will keep on coming, just as Gov. Pete Wilson said in his campaign ad.

Also, we are not in the least persuaded that you occupy the higher moral ground on this issue. We the people know full well that our first responsibility for public education and other services is to our own children and to our children’s children.

As a country which takes in more legal immigrants than all other countries combined, we know that we have no responsibility whatsoever to the many millions--if not billions--who would prefer jumping the line illegally to waiting their turn to enter this country legally.

GEORGE R. TYNDALL

Los Angeles