Letter to the Editor: Immigrants. My grandparents. Yours?

Immigrants are the backbone of this country. This includes the unwilling immigrants once known as “slaves.” Anyone not Native American is an immigrant.

Whether documented or undocumented, the vast majority are not looking to commit crimes – but for opportunity, a better, safer life, a place to work and raise a family. Any contributions in terms of labor, service, education, integrity, innovation and professional achievement should be welcomed, respected, honored.

Shame on the “authorities” who are going after law-abiding individuals, destroying families and the important allies of our labor force. In his novel Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens’ character, Mr. Bumble, exclaims: “…the Law is a ass, a idiot(sic) and if the Law supposes that…I hope its eyes may be opened by experience.”

When people and nations are injured by legal processes originally intended for their “protection,” when the law disregards wisdom and mercy and makes itself a Procrustean bed, the legal system becomes bondage and true freedom, an illusion. At this point, such laws and their legislators must be changed.

Finally, let me be frank. In the rogue (so-called “Republican”) government pushing these policies, there is a very real fear that when able to do so, future legal immigrants may choose not to vote “Republican.” The same goes for DACA, and other undocumented, but non-criminal populations.

This – not “illegality” – underlies the sordid basis for “keeping them out,” or “rounding them up and getting them out.” It is also the basis for the manipulation of voting districts and regulations.

Nancy Moore

Penney Farms