Readers React: Republicans play politics with immigrants’ lives

To the editor: Tamar Jacoby has outlined beautifully the Republican problem with the immigration issue. For them it is a game of “gotcha” with the president. (“Obama set the immigration trap, and the GOP walked in,” Op-Ed, Feb. 18)

But nowhere in her article does she acknowledge that doing the right thing for a large group of human beings living and studying in the U.S. is actually what President Obama is trying to accomplish. Instead, she says he is intent on setting a trap for Republicans, never mind that he has asked Congress for an immigration reform bill on multiple occasions. Furthermore, Jacoby’s claim that a bill proposed by the president would have had a chance at passing the House in the last Congress is pure fantasy.

Nowhere in her piece does Jacoby acknowledge the human cost of the mass deportation of the parents of minor citizens who were born here or of deporting “dreamers” to what would be, for them, a foreign country. Nowhere in her game plan is there mention of doing the moral thing.

This is the real Republican problem: They are playing a game rather than solving a problem.

Alfred Sils, Woodland Hills

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To the editor: While Jacoby accurately assesses the net result of GOP legislative intransigence on immigration, she neglects to mentions in her piece the Senate’s 2013 comprehensive immigration reform bill.

That legislation achieved bipartisan support by any reasonable measure (passing 68 to 32), but it subsequently died without much attention by the GOP-controlled House. The president responded with his carefully considered executive order only after attempting to convince the House to at least take up the Senate bill.

This wasn’t an attempt by Obama to keep immigration alive as a “wedge” issue to favor Democrats. The Republicans do that just fine by themselves.

David Drexler, La Mesa

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To the editor: You label the lawsuit against Obama’s action to shield millions from deportation as “partisan.” (“Immigration debate slowed by another partisan sideshow,” Editorial, Feb. 17)

Obama’s action itself was partisan, as was your editorial. But that’s not much of a standard for deciding whether something is right or wrong. It’s better by far to actually read the federal court decision and then decide whether it or your editorial is correct.

I did, and I’m with the judge. Partisan or not, his is an excellent opinion.

Arthur O. Armstrong, Manhattan Beach

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To the editor: The largest piece of the president’s plan would be open to immigrants who’ve lived here for at least five years, have no serious crimes on their record and are parents of legal residents. There is nothing in the president’s immigration plan that forces people to come forward; rather, it’s available for those who want to come out of the shadows.

These people are already here, going to school, working, paying taxes, owning businesses and driving. So why have the Republicans not deported them already instead of waiting around for a judge to halt the president’s plan?

The Republicans go on and on about family values only to turn around and advocate and cheer for separating families, with no plan of how to round all these people up and ship them wherever. They also do not say just how they intend to pay for this, nor do they tell us their plan for all of the children left behind.

But this is the way the Republicans in Washington do their business: complain, attack and condemn, but never offer a workable solution. The hypocrisy is suffocating.

Carolyn Crandall, Camarillo

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