This is in response to two letters in the October Beacon which decry enforcement of our immigration laws.  Both letters err in their claim that the detention of families who enter the United States illegally is wrong.  Most importantly, those who enter our country in defiance of long standing law are making the decisions that cause their imprisonment.  They “hold the keys to their prison door in their own hands,” as they would be free if they refrain from entering our country illegally.   

It is not unusual for families to be separated when the parents commit a crime.  As a long-term volunteer with the Florida equivalent of the CASA program, I visited many children who were in foster care because their parents had been arrested on drug or other charges.  In any event, the Trump administration is seeking to allow families to be detained together. Detention is necessary. If illegal entrants were given a “get out of jail free card” they would have every incentive to continue to flout our borders.

     I sympathize with the disgust that Pecco Beaufays expresses for the Nazi regime and death camps of his native, former, land.  In view of his knowledge of the Nazi death camps, he should realize how wrong it is to equate American detention, of those who enter our land in violation of our rules, with the murder camps of the Nazis.  The illegal immigrants are detained not because of their ethnicity, but because of their actions, and many of the facilities they are detained in were used by the prior Obama administration to detain immigrants.

Mr. Beaufays claims that some of the immigrants were beneficiaries of an American promise of asylum;  however, asylum was meant for refugees from political, ethnic, or religious persecution, not for those who seek to immigrate to a country with a higher standard of living or more generous government benefits.  

Additionally, his claim that Vice President Pence sees “any women” as “the devil” is ludicrous.  His claim that we live in an “authoritarian regime” is disproved by his freedom to write his letter and its publication.

One reason that we have record low unemployment rates is that President Trump has fought to bar competition for American jobs by those who seek to work here illegally.  If we are to continue to improve the economic condition of low income American workers, including minorities and the disabled, we need to enforce our immigration laws.

Sincerely yours,

Charles Baer