The U.S. Tightens Borders

Re “Don’t Make the Police an Arm of the INS,” Commentary, Dec. 16: The majority of Congress believes that illegal aliens who make it past the guards at the border or who overstay their visas should be allowed to remain in the U.S. permanently. Another amnesty is close to passage. It seems that it’s not politically correct to enforce our immigration laws in the interior of our country. Congress rewards illegal aliens with U.S. citizenship for the ability to sneak in and evade immigration laws. Amnesties encourage even more illegal immigration. As far as illegals paying billions in taxes, this is a myth. Most illegals don’t receive a typical paycheck with tax deductions; they are paid in cash and don’t pay taxes. And the ones who do make such small incomes that the amount doesn’t even begin to pay for free medical care, schools, the cost of incarceration, etc.

Terry Maxson

West Covina

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Commentators Randy Jurado Ertll and Marvin Andrade make a strong case that deputizing every U.S. policeman in the country to enforce INS deportation orders has many drawbacks. Even if the police had somehow stumbled upon and detained all 300,000 persons on the INS deportation order list prior to Sept. 11, none of these persons would have included any of the Sept. 11 terrorists.

The very real cost to increasing police responsibilities to carry out complicated immigration law is that police then must devote less time and resources to preventing crime and terrorism and prosecuting those who commit such acts.

Mike Stollenwerk

Marina del Rey

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Re “Filling in the Holes on a Porous Border,” Dec. 16: Unlike Germany, the United Kingdom and the U.S., there is no evidence to date that Canada played any inadvertent role in the tragic events that occurred in New York. Yet in an effort to sidestep our own massive domestic security failure we are tightening a border on a country with a fraction of our per capita crime rate and prison population.

Our only serious large-scale illegal immigration issue with Canada was when U.S. draft dodgers, our citizens, crossed into their country. Canadians in Southern California work here legally. They include doctors, teachers, professional athletes, actors and university chancellors. Let’s get the facts straight. America cannot afford to alienate powerful, friendly nations that are predisposed to help us.

Dan Cormier

Chatsworth