Dear Editor: We were among the 200,000 who took part in the Women’s March on Jan. 20 in Manhattan.
We marched to show our support for the “Dreamers” and to encourage the Congress to enact meaningful immigration legislation dealing with immigrants yearning to breathe free.
When Mychal returned home from school one day, he observed his mother crying at the kitchen table. She pointed her finger to a letter on the table and he knew right away it was from her family in Donegal, Ireland. Mychal read a portion of the letter and realized that his grandmother had died suddenly. His mother was unable to return to Ireland because she was “undocumented.” The look on his mother’s face horrified him; she was trapped. Her feeling of hopelessness never left him.
Mychal remembers distinctly from catechism class a story that whenever Jesus was preaching the Gospel from village to village, He was often stopped and asked, “where are your papers.” It is time to put an end to these types of inquiry.
The Congress must act swiftly to enact appropriate legislation dealing with Dreamers and other Undocumented Immigrants.
BARBARA FLYNN AND MYCHAL MCNICHOLAS
Manhattan
While the story is heart felt we cannot modify the laws of the land to accommodate those who have broken the law. “Render to God what is God’s and render to Caesar what is Caesar’s” – clearly defines that the laws of God are to be follow yet the laws of the land are to be followed as well.
We cannot be a nation without borders and expect that we will be able to CONTINUE as a nation. We cannot continue to be taxed and support those who are legal citizens who followed the law, the infirm, the disabled and the elderly if we do not control the influx and many more who are put onto the welfare and benefit rolls.
Citizens and those who are here legally deserve the respect for their hard work and financial contributions. When more are admitted without a plan for assimilation and the time it takes for assimilation – language, work, housing etc. there will be negative affects. Look to Sweden who now have their entire country in chaos for accepting all the influx of immigrants and refugees without regard to assimilation. They are now the poster child for mistakes to be avoided.
Elected officials who refuse to follow the laws are anarchists and unfit for office. Laws are to be followed by each citizen, the Church and especially elected officials. America and its citizens and legal immigrants are assured this under our laws and we deserve no less.