Who Pays the Cost? 

Editor:

When I was 15 years old, I got a job as a custodian at the high school I was attending. I worked with Hispanics, Italians and Portuguese, all immigrants. All came to this country to be American citizens. They came through the front door and worked hard to meet all the requirements to be U.S. citizens, including all their family members. These were great people and, after I worked with them for a while, I felt honored to be allowed to work with them. One day, I made the mistake of addressing one of my supervisors in Spanish. He brought me up short, "We are Americans, we speak English."

The issue is not immigration. The issue is illegal immigration. When Liberal Progressives conflate the millions of legal immigrants with those whose first action, upon entering our country, is to violate federal law, supposedly in the name of diversity, they promulgate a lie. And in so doing, they insult all those who have come here legally for the last several generations. Those who support the "sanctuary city/county/state," actually promote lawlessness and their motives are suspect.

Kevin de Leon, president pro tempore of the California State Senate, recently described how his parents entered the country illegally and acquired documentation illegally to stay, clearly proud of the fact. It has recently been estimated that illegal immigrants cost the American taxpayer $64 billion annually. De Leon also stated that California is growing economically and they need people to fill those jobs. We are to believe that American citizens are not appropriate to have those jobs?

Those who push the sanctuary cause should be held accountable for its impacts.

John Damon, McKinleyville