'Dreamer' is wrong about sanctuary policies

Letter date: 
Friday, July 6, 2018
Letter publisher: 
Portland tribune
Letter author: 
Richard F. LaMountain
Letter body: 
"Sanctuary policies," says Luis Balderas Villagrana, "do not ... encourage criminal disobedience" ("New PSU student body president a 'Dreamer," June 7). What?
 
Via sanctuary policies, state and local governments tell illegal immigrants — foreign nationals who have made a conscious decision to violate U.S. immigration law — that they'll work to shield them from the consequences of their lawbreaking. How can that do anything but encourage criminal disobedience?
 
"I see these policies," Balderas Villagrana continues, "as protesting the federal government on their (sic) neglect to fix our immigration system founded on racism and stereotypes."
 
Nonsense.
 
First: The main "fixes" our immigration system needs are simple — to enforce existing laws that aim to vet foreign nationals before they enter our nation, and to remove foreign nationals who have circumvented that vetting or remained here after their visas have expired. 
 
Thanks to President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, both these fixes are in the works.

Second: Immigration laws are not "founded on racism and stereotypes." They apply equally, regardless of race, to all foreign nationals who seek to come here. Their purpose is not punitive, but to assure an orderly influx of immigrants which, in numbers and quality, accords with the needs of the American people.

Sanctuary policies mock Americans, their country and their laws. Be part of the solution: Sign the petition (at StopOregonSanctuaries.org) to help put a measure onto Oregon's November ballot that will enable voters to repeal the state's illegal-immigrant sanctuary law.