Burning questions at the border

Re “A long, hot ‘season of death,’ ” Current, June 18

I have passed through Altar, Mexico, a number of times in the last year. It is frightening and fascinating.

The streets are literally packed with young people just standing around waiting for smugglers to take them north. Stores filled with backpacks, water bottles, dark clothing and similar items line the streets. All around is desolate desert; I find it quite unpleasant in my air-conditioned Jeep.

The good news is that there are many places in Mexico where this is no longer necessary. In our village on Lake Chapala, there is work for everyone who wants it, working to renovate or build homes for U.S. and Canadian citizens. Northern Mexico has a good economic base with many towns that are as prosperous as some in the United States.

In the south, conditions are still horrendous. Only Mexican government reform and U.S. policies promoting reform and economic expansion are going to change the conditions in that part of Mexico and end the exodus to the United States.

DICK LYMAN

Ajijis, Mexico

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How can anyone read that hundreds of innocent people enduring unimaginable travail to eke out a better life for their families are dying in 112-degree heat and not feel profoundly ashamed to be an American?

Should it be patriotic to clamor for every measure to maximize brown-skinned immigrants’ misery and suffering because, after all, crossing the border without documentation is a crime?

My message to the Republican Congress, CNN anchor Lou Dobbs, the Minutemen and those demanding an ever higher body count at the border is this: Your insatiable bloodlust makes you far more heinous criminals than any migrant risking his or her life to support a family.

JOHN BIRKE

Woodland Hills

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For once it would be nice if a story about deaths of illegal border-crossers would give the number of people who die inside Mexico from other causes. Are border deaths the largest number or just the most politically useful and sexy?

BARBARA VICKROY

Escondido