Kind Efforts on Behalf of Illegal Immigrants

Having grown up in El Centro, I was heartened to see “Where Mercy Flows” (Aug. 26) about the volunteers who set up water stations in remote regions of the desert to ensure that the price for illegal immigration is not death.

That people like Father Richard Estrada would venture out into 120-degree heat to assist our small desert community in preventing the innumerable exposure deaths that occur every year is nothing short of amazing. People outside the reach of the Imperial Valley need to know that illegal immigration is more than just fodder for right-wing talk show hosts and their reactionary arguments about strain on welfare, overcrowding, demographic change and American job loss.

These sorts of non sequiturs obscure the real issue, which is that our border policies push destitute families out into the far reaches of the desert or into canals where they are dying in droves.

The article might have added that this community action that Father Estrada lends himself and other volunteers to is all that the Imperial Valley has. Neither our state representatives nor our congressman calls this county home. Our unique border issues are lumped together with the disparate concerns of parts of San Diego and Riverside counties, and [our state legislators] make only the barest of efforts to address the needs of a county whose voting population is considered too small to matter.

Whatever a person’s political position is on immigration, basic decency dictates that border crossing should never be a capital offense. Father Estrada and the numerous Imperial Valley community groups that undertake this effort to save lives should be commended.

CASEY M. WALKER

Los Angeles