Letters

I have a few comments to make regarding the editorial “A Front-Row Seat” in the January 30 edition.

The editorial begins by partly ascribing Donald Trump’s victory to his “rhetoric on immigration.” That dismissal of the central issue in this election and the emphasis President Trump has placed on it from the very onset of his first term in 2016 implies that he was never serious about it to begin with — which couldn’t be further from the truth. Using the word “rhetoric” implies “unserious,” and this is not true.

My next issue with the editorial is with the comments it makes regarding who is and who isn’t a “criminal” in the eyes of the current administration.

I’ll begin with the apparent earned amnesty the column seems to justify for a person who enters our country without our knowledge or consent. This is not a legal act. It is why the term “illegal” applies to those who chose this path. This has nothing to do with their motivation, but it has everything to do with how to view our laws that establish what purpose a border serves. The criminality of invading our country without consent is indisputable.

That America has found itself absorbing all manner of excuses to gain access here is a matter of record. However, the magnitude of the abuse of our rules has turned a nation of unparalleled compassion for hardship into one desperate for order. Americans must not be punished for their generosity.

This Hobson’s Choice of deportation extremes or doing little or nothing can be seen in the Democrat-led cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland. Their streets are teaming with the homeless as they wallow in their compassion.

Thank God our East End is nothing like that. We are not a magnet for this sanctuary, yet. We enjoy a reasonable measure of coexistence with our undocumented. But change that dynamic by assuming the responsibility for the care and education of untold numbers of undocumented and see how that goes over in the editorial page or, for that matter, page one.

Hyperbole about the difficult task of self-correcting the Biden immigration debacle is only going to further divide us. As grownups, we teach our children to be responsible for the mess they make. Well, the grownups are now in charge, and the children have been spoiled into believing someone else will do the cleanup.

There will no doubt be some very sad stories to come out of all this. Just remember that after Joe Biden opened the border we had four years to fix it.

Ed Surgan

Westhampton