First-hand take on border situation

Posted Tuesday, December 23, 2014 5:38 am

Letters to the Editor Policy

It is the policy of The Inquirer to encourage reader participation on its Opinion page. Diverse and varied opinions are welcomed. Because of space limitations, we must limit all contributors to one letter per person per month. Letters of 400 words or less will be published unless they contain language or content that the editors feel is inappropriate. We reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, grammar/spelling, length and for libelous statements.

The deadline for letters is Monday. For space concerns, letters may not run immediately in the next print edition.

Letters must either be about Gonzales County, from a resident of Gonzales County, or in response to a story that appears in print or online in The Inquirer.

Examples of content that will cause letters to be rejected include the following:

• Confusing or unclear points.

• Crude language.

• Poor taste.

• Disrespectful comments regarding a group’s or individual’s ethnicity, gender, religion, culture, sexual orientation or race.

• Other incendiary language or remarks.

• Endorsements for or complaints about individually named commercial products or services.

• Poetry.

• Personal attacks.

• “Thank You” letters that go beyond general thanks to the community; attempt to serve as an advertisement for a company, individual or political party; or is submitted in lieu of a paid “Thank You” advertisement.

We will not publish political endorsement letters or those supporting or opposing specific candidates or parties during an election cycle; we will publish letters on issues before the voters. Endorsements should be displayed in political advertising. In light of this policy, we reserve the right to reject or edit letters for references to candidates and whether or not they should be elected. The Inquirer will accept letters expressing views on bond measures, constitutional amendments and other such issues. Letters will not be accepted once early voting has begun.

The Inquirer will not knowingly publish factually incorrect information.

Only letters written exclusively to the newspaper will be published. Letters to a third party or those written to more than one newspaper are not accepted. “Wallpaper” – submissions that are in large part copied-and-pasted from another author or organization – will not be published.

Letters written in response to other letter writers should address the issue at hand. Discourse should be civil and people should be referred to in a respectful manner. Letters referring to news stories should also mention the headline and date of publication.

All letters must be signed and include the writer’s street address or route address and telephone number, which will be used for verification purposes only.

Please send Letters to the Editor:

• Email: publisher@gonzalesinquirer.com

• U.S. Mail: The Inquirer, P.O. Box 616, Gonzales, Texas, 78629

• In person: The Inquirer, 622 St. Paul Street, Gonzales, Texas, 78629 (Please bring in a digital format, if possible).

Further questions may be directed to Publisher Lew K. Cohn, (830) 672-2861.

Ms. Reddell,

Bravo to you for your most recent editorial regarding securing our border. I've been waiting for years for a civilian to "get it". I spent seven frustrating years as a US Border Patrol Agent in Texas. From my professional experience, I can say emphatically that as long as conditions are better in the US than in Central and South America, people will illegally cross our border. It doesn't matter how many fences, cameras and drones you deploy, oh, and state officers and National Guardsmen, too. They will come. Reminds me of that line by an invisible voice in Kevin Costner's Field of Dreams, "If you build it, he will come." We law-abiding, tax-paying, God-fearing, liberty-loving, Americans have built a system of society that, while not perfect, is the envy of the world. They will come.

As a certified Border Patrol Instructor, I taught immigration and nationality law to Border Patrol Academy Classes 565 and 578 in 2003-2004 at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center at Glynco, GA. I can attest that our immigration laws are plenty strong to deal with our alien problem. The only effective means of securing the US border is for the federal government to ENFORCE THE LAW!!! All federal executive administrations in recent history, liberal AND conservative, have used immigration issues as a political tool for their own gain. When it comes to illegal immigration, the federal executive branch is just not interested in enforcing the law. There are plenty of dedicated men and women in the border patrol just itching to do their jobs and secure the American borders, but the politicians tie their hands. If you want to keep your job in the Border Patrol, you do what the US President tells you. You catch 'em, give 'em a notice to appear (which is rarely obeyed), and let 'em go. We used to walk 'em by the dozen out the front doors of the Brownsville Border Patrol Station, papers in hand. Where they went, nobody knows. Sometimes we even had orders to drive them to the bus station so they could easily go farther into the interior of the US. We don't need new laws. We need to enforce the ones we have.

Millions of illegal immigrants break US laws daily in this country and they are aided and abetted by the executive branch of the federal government. Let me ask you a question: If you don't pay your taxes, do you think the IRS will help you further your crime? Ask Willie Nelson if the IRS helped him avoid paying his taxes? No, the IRS will come and take everything you have and may even put you in prison until pay every last cent that you owe. Yet the federal government assists millions of illegal immigrants in furthering their crimes and gets away with it. The most recent executive action to pardon millions of illegal aliens was a crime directly perpetrated by the President against the US Constitution and the citizens of the United States. It was a dereliction of his duty and an abdication of his oath of office. If things don't change, it's because Americans like you and me don't demand that it change. It will ultimately be our faults for electing crooks, Republican and Democrat alike, to federal office.

Dan Waddell

Gonzales

First-hand take on border situation

Comments

Heroes in out midst

Letter to the Editor