Ridiculous editorial

Re: your Sept. 15 editorial, "Better ways to effect change":

While I might well agree that protesting onsite is a waste of time, I am absolutely appalled that The Star could justify a flagrant disregard of the laws of the United States by reference to Matthew: 40. The Star's ivory tower "intellect" then compares war protesters picketing the funerals of fallen heroes to those who picket supporters of illegal activity!

The Star's biblical effort and its analogy are dead wrong. The author of this ridiculous editorial should be summarily reprimanded and made to apologize to those of us who are proud to be legal citizens of the United States and who honor and uphold the laws of our beautiful nation.

— William J. Tewksbury, Simi Valley

Change Mexico, not U.S.

Re: your Sept. 15 editorial, "Better ways to effect change":

I read with great interest The Star's editorial regarding the plight of illegal aliens into our country and, more importantly, into our state and city.

I take offense to the comparison of the protesters practicing their civil liberties to the protesters of a military funeral. How can The Star equate the death of a hero to a person who has committed a crime and has not worked within the system but has enjoyed the freedoms our soldiers have sacrificed their lives for?

Liliana does not even feel as though she has the obligation to make changes in her own country, but she comes to another person's back yard and tries to dictate our policies. Making worthwhile changes within her own system by improving the education, resources and business opportunities within her own country would be time better spent, rather than hiding out within a church of worship.

— Arlene Tapper, Simi Valley

Wrong target

Anti-immigration protesters were gathered in Simi Valley on Sunday to protest at a local church that is harboring a young, illegal immigrant mother with an infant while her case winds its way through the legal system.

Why not protest in front of the county jail, where 30 percent to 60 percent of the real criminals are illegal immigrants? Or in front of the legislators who can really do something about the policies? Why pick on the absolutely most vulnerable segment of any country's population, mother and infant?

One must wonder: Instead of Liliana from Mexico, what if it were "Irene" from "England" who overstayed her visa and is now in the United States illegally? Would there be a different kind of protest — or would there be no protest at all?

— JoLynn Hinger, Simi Valley

Reform immigration

Re: your Sept. 15 editorial, "Better ways to effect change":

I thank The Star for its editorial on the urgent need for humane and comprehensive immigration reform to be completed now by our U.S. Congress. This is indeed where the focus must now be — not on the churches doing God's work, nor on the family tragedies caught up in our dreadful system as it currently exists.

Our nation's immigration laws are unrealistic, inhuman and inadequate; we must have laws that address the needs of all concerned, especially the needs of people from other countries who have lived and worked here for years, are law-abiding in every other way, are productive members of our society, and have put down roots. Let's put pressure on the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate to take care of this now!

— Theadora Davitt-Cornyn, Oxnard

Is inquisition wanted?

Re: your Sept. 15 editorial, "Better ways to effect change":

Bravo to The Star's editorial writers! They spoke beautifully in observing: "Those who would picket church members for doing what church members do — helping people ("inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me," Matthew: 40) — are right up there with war protesters who picket funerals of U.S. troops."

Racism and bigotry are unforgivable. The animus against undocumented workers (mostly Hispanic) strains the bonds of reason. The demonstrators represent those who say the undocumented are criminals, as if that behavior were the sole property of the foreign-born and not of those who were born here. The 12 million or so undocumented workers did not come here to go to jail; they, my grandfathers, came here to escape economic oppression and to work.

As to the question of economics and the real world, do these pickets check for the I-9 immigration forms of those who supplied the products that they buy in the market or at Wal-Mart, where I do not shop?

The reality is that raising wages will not get people to take jobs they do not want because those jobs are backbreaking and/or destructive of the dignity of the worker, especially in a society with an unemployment rate that is less than 5 percent.

Have these protesters ever visited the farms on which many of the undocumented work? I have.

The dream of the undocumented is the American dream, to work and to provide for their families.

Do these pickets support legislation to provide the undocumented a path to citizenship, or do they want an inquisition to check the status of 12 million, hold them in camps until transportation can be arranged, and move them south of the border?

— Rabbi John Sherwood, Oxnard

Do-nothing Congress

Re: U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly's Sept. 16 commentary, "Simple steps would reduce illegal immigration":

So Gallegly has introduced 12 bills this year targeting illegal immigration. He fails to mention that none of them has passed and that none is likely to pass. He is a member of a Congress that for the last three years has been one of the least effective in recent history.

Gallegly has written at length about what could happen. In December, he should write about what he has accomplished this year. It will probably be a very short article.

— Sherman N. Mullin, Oxnard

Listen to Gallegly

Re: U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly's Sept. 16 commentary, "Simple steps would reduce illegal immigration":

This piece made me wonder if any congressional districts other than the 24th wish to do anything about our illegal immigration problem.

I travel extensively and never cease to wonder why at every border I must produce a passport and often a visa to enter that country. Our airport security and shipyard cargo X-rays are all for naught if we cannot control our borders and if millions continue to cross while little or nothing is done in Congress to stop it.

As our learned congressman states, it is the employers who are at fault for hiring noncitizens. My own granddaughter is engaged to a doctor from another country who is here legally but is not yet a citizen and is unable to work until he establishes citizenship. This is someone who can contribute greatly to our nation, but he must wait until he goes through the proper channels. Meanwhile, uneducated people come in daily and expect free medical and education benefits without ever having paid Social Security taxes as Americans do.

Rep. Gallegly has the answers. but few if any in Congress listen to his astute ideas.

— Lois D. Glab, Camarillo

Ancestors applied

Re: Barbara Vernon's Sept. 13 letter, "Remembering our ancestors":

Our ancestors didn't just get on a ship and arrive in the New World. They had to apply for passage, have identification and be examined by a doctor, and they were documented when they embarked upon a ship. When they arrived, they were quarantined, examined again and documented when they disembarked. They generally had to apply for citizenship within 10 years of their arrival. When they traveled across the Great Plains, they were documented again. The laws were just as stringent then as they are now.

Of course, the political prisoners and criminals of the British Empire were documented when they were sent to the Americas.

— Karol Ransom, Ventura