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For those who want some facts on immigration

To the editor:

If you are interested in facts, Joan Loewen, here is a fact for you: Illegal immigrants cost this country $14.7 billion a year. That fact came from The Sentinel and it concerned only one of the areas that I mentioned in my letter.

If it is correct, as you stated, undocumented (illegal) immigrants pay $11.6 billion a year in taxes, then our nation is already $4.1 billion in the hole. That is almost as much as the $5.7 billion that President Donald Trump was requesting for his border barrier.

You are correct that border crossings were down in 2017, but they were picking back up in 2018 and the caravan was partially responsible for the increase. Now there is another caravan on the way. Illegal crossings are always occurring and as I said, there is a never-ending supply of these illegal immigrants coming toward our borders.

I do not care if illegals commit crimes at a lower rate than the general population. My point is that every crime committed by an illegal is preventable by the illegal not being here in the first place.

As for whether or not you, in particular, think that we should have open borders, I don’t know, but if you haven’t heard many liberal commentators say that they want open borders, you should pay more attention to what is being said on the news. One newly-elected representative from New York even went so far as to say that illegals coming here in the caravan “are more American than the Americans who don’t want them here illegally.”

I have nothing against people wanting to immigrate to the United States. I don’t blame them for wanting better things for themselves and their families. I have relatives who immigrated here, but they did it the correct way.

They spent the time and the money to jump through all the hoops and are now proud American citizens. Every time someone tries to do it the wrong way, it is like a poke in the eye to all those who did it the right way. There are still many out there trying to do it the proper way and others should not be allowed to “jump the line.”

Now, as for whether or not a wall or barrier on the border would be effective, Jim Acosta in his arrogance when he went to the border, and walked along the wall, he said “it was a manufactured crisis because there were no illegals there trying to cross over the barrier.” He made President Trump’s point for him. There was no one trying to cross there simply because the barrier was there. That’s why we need to extend the wall to where there is no wall.

Stephen Sellers

Lewistown

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