Protesters are patriots

Re: your Sept. 17 article, "Protesters target Simi church":

Thanks to all the American patriots who showed up Sunday to protest the illegal sanctuary movement being played out in Simi Valley. Hopefully, it's this type of action that will someday help to bring an end to the rampant crime, overstressed healthcare system and failed education system that illegal immigration has brought to the Southland.

This nation's middle class has got to stand up sooner or later and put an end to this fiasco. We're getting taken down the path of destruction from every single direction: federal, state and local.

The Star's Monday front page pretty much said it all. Isn't it ironic that the article about the protest of the illegal-alien sanctuary is above a story about the county of Ventura spending almost $300 per day for each Spanish interpreter required to be on hand for both criminal and civil proceedings for non-English speakers. This service has been called upon for Hispanics almost 17,000 times in just six months.

Also, the Ventura County Transportation Commission just approved an application for a state grant for $3 million in subsidized vanpool transportation for farm workers, the vast majority being Hispanic.

Not to mention the fact the federal government continues to tie the hands of our border agents and local law enforcement officers, citing possible civil rights violations.

This is so downright amazing, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. So I guess I'll just go to work, like I had to last Sunday, to pay my taxes that fund this massive ongoing debacle.

I can only hope that one day, my scheduled day off will coincide with another rally, so I, too, can show my support for the rule of law in this nation.

— Tobin Kelly,

Oxnard

Just obey the law

Re: your Sept. 17 article, "Protesters target Simi church":

This is what happens when a church decides it is going to be a trailblazer and try to sell lawlessness to Ventura County by using an emotional situation as fuel.

Although it is certainly undesirable to split families up, this so-called New Sanctuary Movement is shoving federal inaction into the faces of the citizenry. If we just practice a law-abiding and organized method of immigration, which is the law already, we could have many fewer conflicts of ideas and an easier demographic adjustment.

Instead, we have an uncontrolled stream of new inhabitants — a security risk itself — and people who label any opposition as "racist," while the people who create the problem just sit back and watch and are ready with their North American union and national ID cards.

— Mark Ortega,

Ventura

Don't criticize protesters

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

How dare The Star have the audacity to criticize American citizens when they stand up for their rights?

I noticed The Star was applauding the illegal aliens when they had a protest march in Los Angeles, but it dares to criticize us for exercising our rights as citizens.

I noticed The Star did not print articles about the students in Montebello when they flew the Mexican flag above the American flag, which was flown upside down. Yes, I have the photos if The Star wants them.

Here are a few reasons why we, American citizens, were protesting this woman.

First, she is here illegally — not once, but twice. Now she has produced an anchor baby she is using to try and stay here.

Second, in Sunday's Star, U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly stated that illegal aliens make up 30 percent of the federal prison population in the United States.

Third, in Monday's paper, there was an article about the courts having to hire more interpreters because the illegal aliens refuse to learn our language.

The Star has a social responsibility to be unbiased and truthful in reporting. It cannot make judgments based on personal beliefs because, if it continues to do so, it will see an erosion of the First Amendment and continued loss of readership.

I was not at the protest, but The Star does not have the right to criticize the protesters unless it also criticizes the illegal aliens for being here as well.

— Jules Rabalais,

Simi Valley

Take immigrants' jobs

Re: your Sept. 17 article, "Protesters target Simi church":

I was shocked and appalled at the photo of Robin Hvidston screaming at or about a Hispanic mother (Liliana) and her baby who had taken sanctuary at a Simi Valley church.

The hate in her face reminds me of that famous 1960s photo showing a white woman screaming at the back of a 15-year-old black girl who was trying to integrate an all-white school in the South.

Those in the crowd in the Simi Valley photo said they wanted to make a "citizen's arrest" of Liliana. They looked more like they wanted to get a rope and find the nearest tree.

Where is this hate coming from? If people don't want immigrants to come here, they just need to stop hiring them. If there were U.S. citizens to take the jobs immigrants are doing, immigrants would not come. But we don't want to pick crops, work in slaughterhouses or be busboys and dishwashers.

That's our fault, not the immigrants' fault. If these jobs paid enough for Americans to want to do them, then the price of food would go way up. I doubt Hvidston wants to pay $3 for an apple, but she wants these people, who work for almost nothing in the fields, to be sent back to Mexico. You can't have it both ways.

Hvidston and others like her need to try doing one of the jobs that the immigrants are doing. I am sure there are enough anti-immigration people in this country to fill all those jobs three times over. Then, voila, no more immigrant problem.

— Alison Carlson,

Ventura

False information

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

Gallegly lied to his constituents in his commentary. He claimed that 30 percent of our federal prison population is made up of undocumented immigrants. That 30 percent claim is contradicted by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Gallegly is wildly inaccurate.

Also, undocumented immigrants have lower incarceration rates as a percentage of their population than U.S. citizens.

A representative should never lie to his or her constituents! The Star should do its job and correct this misinformation. That's what journalism is all about. Why does Gallegly not have a problem with lying?

— Christian Decker,

Ventura

It's Bank of America'

I feel, because I am living in America, that when I bank in America, I should not have to use deposit slips that are written in Spanish and English, where the letters that are in Spanish are larger than the letters that are in English.

I also should not have to read a large advertisement written in Spanish on a wall inside the branch. I also should not have to listen to the staff speak loudly to the customers in Spanish.

Bank of America should have the deposit slips replaced with "English only" written on them. It should remove the large advertisement and have its staff speak in English only at it branch at Moorpark and Janss roads.

I do want to continue to bank with Bank of America. I don't want to feel as though I am banking in Mexico.

— Jim McHarg,

Thousand Oaks