Letters: Immigration enforcement, then, now and green
Past borders
Re “Debate revives statue symbolism” (Page 3B, April 1): People have a mistaken idea about immigration in the early part of the last century. There is a belief that people from Europe poured through Ellis Island with no restrictions whatsoever. This is incorrect.
My maternal grandparents were married at Immigration, on Ellis Island. My grandmother was not allowed to enter the U.S. as a single, unaccompanied, unemployed female. It was a whirlwind courtship, but it worked.
It was so much time, expense and trouble to repatriate people rejected at Ellis Island that the U.S. State Department set up consulates to screen people in Europe. My father and his mother were cleared by Immigration there. While the poem by Emma Lazarus is inspiring, it is poetic license.
Stephen P. Keller, Rocklin
Green borders
What if Trump’s wall were a strip of agriculture where the U.S. and Mexico cooperated in construction and maintenance and shared the income and jobs?
Trump’s proposed wall is ugly, expensive, of questionable effectiveness and an embarrassment to both nations. But imagine hundreds of square miles of new farm land irrigated with desalinized seawater from the Gulf of Mexico and Sea of Cortez. Walls can become worthless and torn down. Farms grow.
Rod Buntzen, Calistoga
California borders
Has the state Senate gone bat-guano crazy? If the Assembly votes similarly, and the governor signs the sanctuary state bill, this state will become a mecca for illegal immigrant criminals. Lets hope Gov. Jerry Brown sees the danger in this bill and vetoes it the moment it reaches his desk.
Kern Hunt, Lincoln
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This story was originally published April 5, 2017 at 3:22 PM with the headline "Letters: Immigration enforcement, then, now and green."