International borders are a federal responsibility. The immigrants coming into this country are seeking asylum. Seeking asylum is legal no matter how entry is made.
Asylum seekers are vetted and given permission to enter and claim asylum. Is Joel Ramirez (Letters, March 7) concerned with all “illegal immigrants,” or only people of color? Nearly 200,000 Ukrainians have sought asylum in the past year. We have immigrants from Afghan, Syria, Romania, Haiti, South America and Cuba, to name a few. Which bother him the most?
And can he please specify the “federal travel assistance,” since this is something I would like to tap into to help refugees.
Gov. Greg Abbott has spent $12 million busing refugees to New York, Washington, D.C. and Chicago. That’s $80,000 per trip.
As for diseases, those can enter via people traveling abroad. How did COVID enter the U.S.?
As for fentanyl, the majority of seizures are confiscated at ports of entry, which raises the question: With increased personnel at the borders, why is this still an issue? The other issue is Supply and demand. If Americans continue to demand illicit drugs, someone, somewhere will continue to supply it. We buy drugs at the click of a button.
Immigrants have always contributed to the U.S. Albert Einstein, Sergey Brin, Levi Strauss, Dikembe Mutombo, Joseph Pulitzer, Rupert Murdoch, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, etc. And a few females: Arianna Huffington, Isabel Allende, Liz Claiborne, Madeleine Albright, and you can add Katya Echazaretta.
So please stop with the fearmongering, bullying and shameless lies.
Raquel Martinez
Donna
Growing
deficits
The debt ceiling is the statutory limit on the amount of money the U.S. can borrow to meet its legal obligations. Since 1960, Congress has tinkered with it 78 times — 49 times by Republicans and 29 times by Democrats.
If the federal government doesn’t pay its debts, federal employees will be furloughed, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid payments will stop and federal buildings will close. Some right-wingers would love to see this happen even if it negatively affects millions of Americans, including themselves. I winder: Are these people even aware of this?
Ronald Reagan oversaw the largest debt ceiling increases in modern history, 17 total. George W. Bush began his administration with a surplus that he inherited from Bill Clinton, and yet he still managed to nearly double the borrowing cap.
In January 2017, when Donald Trump was sworn into office, the national debt stood at $19.9 trillion. By 2020 it had increased to $27 trillion, the fastest rate of increase of the national debt by any modern president. Yeah, and he did this in four years! Making America great again!
Obviously, this is a U.S. dilemma that needs to be corrected. But how? Displeasing the very rich minority by making them pay their fair share of taxes? Or displeasing the poor and the middle-class majority by taking away Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and trimming down our military? What to do?
Hey, don’t look at me, I’m just an ordinary U.S. citizen, and as Socrates said, “The only thing I know is that I know nothing.” Hoo-boy.
Italo J. Zarate
Brownsville
LETTERS — Limit letters to 300 words; all letters are subject to editing. Mail: P.O. Box 3267, McAllen, TX78502-3267; Email: [email protected]
