Dallas Morning NEWS: Sunday letters: Immigration
12:00 AM CST on Sunday, December 16, 2007


Suburbs are just enforcing laws

Re: "Emptying classrooms – Two school districts share one problem: declining enrollment; the demise of low-income apartment complexes plays a role for both – In Richardson, a lack of young families may force school closures," last Sunday Metro.

The recent loss of students in Irving, while a sad commentary, has been long overdue. No community should be required to build at least one school a year for children of parents who are not legal immigrants or U.S. citizens. The taxpaying, middle-class American citizen is floundering; just look at all of the insufferable problems our country faces with the failure to care for its own people.

Don't blame Irving or Farmers Branch for enforcing the laws that our federal government refuses to.

Lee Grego, Irving


Innocent children often caught ...

Re: "Caught in the middle – Immigration laws put focus on treatment of most vulnerable: kids," Dec. 8 news story.

Marian Villalobos created problems for herself and her family when she chose to break the law. After being caught in the country illegally in 2002, she agreed to report for deportation and then disappeared into our society to avoid justice.

Five years later, she was caught again and was deported. But she once again entered the country illegally, was caught and deported. If she had returned to her home country in 2002 as agreed, she might have found a legal way to be in this country by now.

I feel sorry for her children, but not for her. Her children suffer just as the innocent children of any lawbreaker suffer when their parents are punished for their crimes. But I have missed your articles on the sufferings of the children of dope dealers, robbers, thieves and murders.

Richard F. Ray, Round Rock


... punish the employers also

Could it just be possible that one reason that Marian Villalobos was so anxious to return to the United States was that she was pregnant and really wanted to have that second baby on U.S. soil? I have no doubt she missed her child as any mother would, but getting two children into the system surely couldn't hurt, could it? She could get them both on WIC, Medicaid and SCHIP.

Ms. Villalobos is not the victim here. If her children are victims of anyone, it is of her. She is solely responsible for her plight and that of her children.

Every time I read one of the stories designed to make us feel sorry for the poor mistreated illegals, it makes me that much angrier that nothing is being done to stop the constant stream of illegals who cross our borders or punish those employers who hire them.

I think a few jail terms for employers might go a long way to solving a problem that threatens to destroy our health system.

Troy Worthy, Hurst


... and why is this case special?

Yes, Marian Villalobos is in a bad situation, but she brought it on herself. May I ask a simple question?

There are millions of people in Honduras, and Mexico, and all over the world who are in just as bad, or worse, shape as Ms. Villalobos. Do not these people deserve help just as much as she does? Why does she deserve special consideration just because she came to this country illegally and produced a child while she was here? The only honest answer is that she does not.

The taxpayers of this country simply cannot afford to support all the poor people in the world. And coming to this country illegally does not give them special privileges. Ms. Villalobos is no more deserving of help than all the other poor people in the world.

Anyone who claims to support illegal immigration for humanitarian reasons is morally dishonest. What it boils down to is that all the people who support illegal immigration do so for only one reason: the perceived economic benefits they get from their cheap labor – which comes at the expense of the American taxpayers.

John F. Bigony, Arlington
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