Obey the laws or get out
I do not support the cause of illegal immigrants because they are lawbreakers. [“Thousands rally for immigration bill,” NWSunday, April 11.]
It is that simple: I do not condone criminal activity, no matter what the rationale is. In the case of the illegal immigrants, there is no valid rationale. They are embroiled in a dilemma of their own concoction: They bemoan their current, self-induced predicament of enjoying their lives in the United States, but having to do it without benefits of citizenship.
Sorry, no crocodile tears here.
No one dragged them kicking and screaming across the border into the United States against their will. They sneaked across the border because they wanted to, and they thumbed their noses at our immigration laws in the process, thereby placing themselves above the law —a privileged position that no U.S. citizen enjoys by birthright or fiat, much less an illegal immigrant. But they insist that they should be rewarded with citizenship rather than exported for their criminal acts.
I respectfully disagree. It is the bedrock responsibility of every nation to control who enters the country, who becomes a citizen and who does not. In the United States, we have a codified set of laws; they are not “rules” as Congressman Jim McDermott suggests They set forth the parameters of immigration to the United States. People who want to immigrate here must learn and abide by those laws or get out.
— Richard Porter, Langley