Letters to the editor May 6
Illegal immigration
Following the arrival of the unannounced people from South America, I ask our community to be heard and stop this illegal activity.
As a military veteran and law enforcement officer, I repeatedly took oaths to protect and serve this nation and community. The fact that the Biden administration is knowingly and purposely breaking the law and putting the safety of our citizens and economy at risk is unthinkable. The laws of this nation dictate a process to enter into this country, and our community doesn’t have the resources to support non-U.S. citizens dropping in out of nowhere.
Ultimately, it’s our tax dollars that pay to support illegal immigrants. Health care, schools, legal resources and the list goes on and on. It needs to stop!
— Marquis Laude, Kalispell
Undocumented humans
Undocumented humans are not the problem, our response to them is. I’m sure our law enforcement encounters numerous individuals who refuse to provide identification, and since they do not belong to an easily identified group, it is more difficult to quantify who they are and single them out in a letter to the editor.
When people are angry, they often want to misdirect their anger rather than take care of the root issue. This misdirected anger has affected different disenfranchised groups throughout history.
While perhaps Sheriff Brian Heino’s letter to the editor was to point out that the resources these undocumented humans utilize in their attempt at cultivating a better life, I fear it only provided and legitimized another target for other’s unremediated anger.
We’re all here on this earth, just trying to get by. Just like me, we all want to live peacefully and safely. Thank you for the work you do.
— Gretchen Brown, Kalispell
Build the wall
In the May 5 Inter Lake, there was an op-ed on the illegal immigrants sent to Kalispell written by Flathead County Sheriff Brian Heino, and there was also an Inter Lake editorial on “a deluge of campaign style press releases” from Reps. Matt Rosendale and Ryan Zinke, and from Senate candidate Tim Sheehy, all Republicans.
Heino’s letter was good, but the editorial was typical campaign style political virtue signaling in support of our treasonous President Joe Biden. The editorial wastes our time on how there was “zero evidence” that Biden had the immigrants from Venezuela sent to Kalispell, but then pontificated on how our elected officials need to seek solutions. Too many readers will suck that up despite the fact that the editorial made zero mention of the obvious solution. Build the wall.
In his recent “reaching across the aisle” campaign style rhetoric about keeping Montana safe, has Sen. Jon Tester mentioned building the wall? I haven’t heard it. Have you?
Who do we know of who really wants to build the wall instead of parroting the same timeworn platitudes about legislative ways to justify breaking the immigration laws? In case you haven’t figured it out, building the wall is not about keeping immigrants out altogether. It’s about making them knock at the front door, as it used to happen. If the excuse for not building the wall is just, “well, they’ll just dig tunnels,” post guards along the border. Build the wall.
In addition, another solution is an Article V Convention to address border security. Convention of States, a grassroots organization of citizen activists, promotes such a proposal.
The immediate solution is to build the wall, which we can support with a deluge of demands to Washington, D.C., or on Nov. 5, but sadly the Convention of States solution still needs 15 more state legislatures, including Montana, to apply for the Article V Convention.
— Eric Knutson, Dayton