"We're all immigrants here, even the AmerIndians"

Rejection of principles

Life, liberty and

the uprooting

of happiness

Editor, The Times:

How ironic that Wednesday we celebrated a revolution for "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," while Tuesday's front page records the cruel persecution and deportation of people who came to this country seeking security and economic survival. Something is wrong with this picture!

The U.S. and its free-trade policies have sucked the life out of the economies to the south, forcing thousands of people to come here to survive. Their labor keeps the U.S. afloat.

Yet the government treats them like criminals, uproots them after decades in this country, and breaks up families without even any time for them to arrange for the welfare of their children.

The so-called immigration "reform" measure, which would have turned immigrants into indentured servants, died a well-deserved death. What's needed is simple and cheap: Stop the militarization and walls between the U.S. and Mexico and grant amnesty for all.

— Helen Gilbert, Seattle

Scapegoats and kid gloves

Tears filled my eyes as I read the moving story about immigration raids that leave children in the care of neighbors and send mothers to detention centers. What is this country coming to?

Are immigrants the new Jews? And if they are, what are we who stand and watch our neighbors being taken away, never to be seen again? Are we like the "good Germans" who saw Jews rounded up but did nothing? The Nazis also claimed the people they "detained" were criminals, misfits and undesirables.

Neil Clark, Seattle ICE "field director for detention and removal operations" (what a title!), claims his officers treat those they arrest with "respect and dignity." How is it possible to claim one respects, in any real sense, people one is persecuting?

Those of us who believe in human and workers' rights must speak up!

Open the borders and end this horrible chapter in our country's history.

— Guerry Hoddersen, Seattle

Time against race

I was outraged and disturbed by "A knock on the door ... " This campaign by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a concerted effort to bully the whole community into accepting a guest-worker program that would lock immigrant workers into low-wage jobs as indentured servants.

The ICE raids are reminiscent of the disgraceful time in U.S. history when Japanese were rounded up during World War II.

As a community activist and local organizer for Radical Women, I've helped organize protests against both government and far-right attacks on immigrants. Rest assured, people have learned from the history of Japanese Americans and will not remain silent while the Latino immigrant community gets rounded up.

— Christina Lopez, Seattle Radical Women, Seattle

A lamp beside

the bolted door

The legend on the pedestal of our Statue of Liberty includes these inspiring words: Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free ...

"A knock on the door ... " describes agents from our wise and powerful federal government ripping Ana Reyes-Velasquez out of her Burien home at 5:30 a.m., where she was raising her children, so that she can be trucked over the Mexican border and dumped back where she supposedly belongs. Lots of luck.

Time for our country to get real and modify our Statue of Liberty inscription, which we no longer even pretend to honor. Maybe a chiseled footnote: "* Mexicans not included"?

Naw-w-w-w, that doesn't go far enough. How about a 200-foot-high wall around our entire national border, topped with concertina wire, equipped with floodlights and snarling dogs?

We're all immigrants here, even the AmerIndians. No evidence has been found of human beings inhabiting North America or South America, as far back as maybe 50,000 years, at most.

Whatever Ana Reyes-Velasquez may have done or may have failed to do, this episode and others like it are a national disgrace.

— Chuck Hastings, Federal Way

Birth of a rationale

I saw your piece about the ICE raids, picking up the illegal immigrants who are flouting court orders to leave. Good for them.

I do not understand the argument about breaking up families by deporting them. Do they get a free pass because they have kids? Note that a lot sneak across the border specifically to have a child here as the "anchor child" to bring the family over — then argue we can't deport them because they have the child.

Next time someone robs a bank or otherwise violates the law, I can just hear the argument: "Sorry, judge, it's true I did the crime, but I can't do any time because I have children."

Immunity from consequences of unlawful actions by virtue of having a family. Got it ...

— Ed Nichols, Bellevue

The cradle of liberty

I feel proud of the immigration officers who try to do a good and honorable job in the circumstances they are given. The laws, however, need changing.

If we can't agree on the rights of immigrants, surely we can agree on the rights of American citizens.

It is my strong opinion that an American child has a right to be cared for by her parents in her own country. America does not make orphans of its children. America is good and proud and just.

— Richenda Fairhurst, Camas

Illegal, in hiding

The Times is getting so PC, it's ridiculous! All of the people mentioned in "A knock on the door ... " who were being arrested were illegal immigrants. Until you read the article, you would think they were all legal immigrants being thrown out of the country.

The Times didn't use the term "illegal" in its headlines. I would be up in arms if [those who were profiled] had been legals.

Come on, Times, give us the facts up front!

— Bob Lalande, Tacoma

Let freedom sting

As I read "A knock on the door ... " I felt a tremendous sense of appreciation and relief that the public authorities are working so hard to protect me and my children from the threat of the illegal immigrants in our area.

These dangerous people seem to be everywhere cleaning houses, cooking food, picking fruit and vegetables, packing fish, building things. They can also be seen driving cars, shopping and enjoying the beach. They even engage in the subversive activity of sending their kids to school!

How dare they live like normal, hardworking people! Let them cool off in jail before condemning them to another generation of poverty in their own country, I say!

On the same page, I read about the commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence [

God bless American justice!

In "Your next online purchase may include a surprise: tax" [page one, July 1], the short-sightedness of state and federal government as well as The Times become very evident. We can no longer depend on the archaic sales-tax approach traditionally used by many localities.

The global marketplace is not in our future, it is here. Implementation of a Web-based sales tax penalizes only U.S. businesses while improving the business case for foreign retailers by partially offsetting their added shipping costs.

While no one wants to increase their income or property taxes, I believe people would be willing to consider these types of increases, provided that sales taxes are eliminated. Past attempts have only reduced the sales tax rate, not eliminated it.

We do not trust the politicians or bureaucrats to utilize taxes efficiently and they will just continue to increase these taxes if the avenue is left open to them.

Real analysis of the tax structure and revenue streams is required in relation to our current global business environment, rather than the simplistic extension of existing practices. The shortsightedness of The Times in not addressing the global marketplace is, unfortunately, expected.

— Wayne Sonn, Renton

A Boston tea set

Apparently The Times [in "Leveling the field of Internet sales," editorial, June 28], and the states have all forgotten the Supreme Court decision stating that in order to be taxed locally, a business must have a presence in that state.

This is yet another case of the state's greed to squeeze more money out of the taxpayer. Portraying it under a guise of "fairness" is a flimsy excuse. There's nothing that says the brick-and-mortar stores can't make their own presence on the Web. I'm sure many are doing just that (and that's probably more likely the reason the states are trying to circumvent the court ruling).

I think about the double-taxation of some items — sales tax on top of the sin tax for cigarettes, for instance; we don't see sales tax on booze, now, do we? Why is that?

About those so-called "user fees": Why should you have to pay a fee to the state to use those sneakers you bought on vacation?

Other than our leaders being elected, how are we different from a monarchy? You have to pay a fee to the state to buy anything or use any service. You have to pay rent on your home to keep it from being taken away. You even have to pay for permission to our fearless leaders for the privilege to get married.

Freedom? Don't believe it. Even a caged bird sings.

— Doug Spooner, Issaquah

The latest from Paris

Stripes make you

look taller

Just think. Paris Hilton has spent more time in jail than Scooter Libby ever will.

— Stefan Feller, Edgewood