The United States was founded by immigrants who declared independence from Britain. This nation's founders wanted to be ruled by equitable laws that our citizens made for themselves, not by royalty or dictators. Every citizen of the United States has the right to challenge unjust laws through legislatures or the courts; therefore, respecting our nation's laws is fundamental to being a good American.
For Judith Hutton, CEO of the YWCA of Princeton ("Honor the legacy of Dorothy Height," May 23), to assert in her op-ed article that enforcement of our existing immigration laws is "racism" insults every American who believes in the rule of law. Her article also disrespects the millions of legal immigrants who have enriched our nation by obeying our laws, applying for legal residency and often becoming citizens.
My many immigrant friends resentfully describe those who sneak across our borders as "line breakers." Without exception, they're all furious over our federal government's unwillingness to enforce our immigration laws. Those who violate our immigration laws by coming into or remaining in the U.S. illegally have already disregarded one of the most fundamental precepts of being an American. If they begin their stay in our nation by breaking the law, how could we reasonably expect such immigrants to respect any of our other laws?It is not surprising, therefore, that an estimated 12 Americans are murdered every day by illegal aliens, according to statistics released by Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. If only half of those numbers are correct, it translates to 2,190 Americans murdered annually by illegal immigrants. That's about 21,000 since Sept. 11, 2001. Ninety-five percent of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens. Twenty-nine percent (630,000) of our state and federal prison population is composed of convicted illegal alien felons, which costs our nation more than $1.6 billion annually...
