Letter To The Editor:

I was born and raised in the United States, my ancestors on my mother's side came from Ireland legally. My father's ancestors came from England legally. There were eight boys and two girls in our family. My father taught us as we were small children that there were laws in this country and that you had to obey them or you would be put in jail. It seems that is no longer the case if you are an illegal immigrant and by coming into the United States illegally you have broken the law but have no fear, illegal immigrants are not put in jail for breaking the laws of this country.

In March 1942, over 227,000 Japanese-Americans were taken from their homes at Bainbridge Island, Washington, were forced from their homes and put in prison camps. The charge was National Security but now there are millions of illegal immigrants from Mexico and the government does nothing about them except pet and pamper them. Are they not a threat to our National Security? They cost the U.S. Government millions of dollars each year for health care. This money should be spent to help the veterans who put their lives on the line for the freedom of this country during all the wars we've been in.

On July 7, 1942 I was sixteen years old, I lived on a farm in McMinn County. On Monday August 10, 1942 I walked nine miles to Athens, TN. stood in line over a half block long. Finally I got to the Post Office where the recruiting officer was located. I told the Navy recruiting officer I wanted to join the U.S. Navy. He asked how old I was, I told him I was sixteen, he gave me several forms that my parents would have to sign in the presence of a Notary. So I walked the nine miles back home. The next morning my daddy took the mules to the wagon, then mother and daddy and myself went the seven miles to Niota to the Post Office. Mr. Lantom was the postmaster and he was also a Notary. With the forms all signed we went back home. The next morning I again walked the nine miles to Athens, stood in line again but when I got to the Navy recruiting officer I was loaded on a bus (like a school bus) and taken to the Post Office in Chattanooga where I was sworn into the U.S. Navy. I was sent to Great Lakes Training Center for four weeks. But in less than two months I was in the South Pacific in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, October 23-26 1944, then Iwo Jima, Feb 19-March 16, 1945, here is where I got my Purple Heart, then on to Okinaua April 1-June 21, 1945. I spent 34 months in the South Pacific fighting the Japanese for the freedom of this country and now the illegal immigrants and the politicians have just taken all that freedom away from true blood Americans who put their lives on the line for that freedom.

The illegal immigrants are having us change our school system, our religious ways, they just plain ignore our laws and then they force the States government to give them anything they want or they will march by the thousands. The government say they don't know what to do about the illegal immigrants. Well they knew what to do with the Indians and the Japanese Americans, they could round them up and send them back to where they came from, or put them in prison. Now I can hear the government crying real loud, we don't have enough jails, well put them in tents, make a tent city. It's funny, tents were good enough for the service men and women to live in during World War ll. but they aren't good enough for a criminal and that is what an illegal immigrant is.

You hear people say that Americans won't work at the things the immigrants will, no I will grant you that, because they don't live the American standard of living, they work so much cheaper because they live 10 to 15 to a room and eat like the American rats so they can send their money back to Mexico.  This cheap labor also keeps the minimum wage so low, in fact, below the poverty level, causing Americans to depend on welfare.

How come the U.S. Government can send troops and armed power to protect the people in Iraq, why can't the U.S. government send armed troops to protect the American people from illegal immigrants, after all it is the American people who pay taxes to the U.S. government for that protection. If the government can't stop the illegal immigrants, put me in charge, I can stop then in less than 30 days, they won't be so eager and enthusiastic to cross that border looking down the barrel of a 30 Cal. machine gun.

Americans pay taxes for the U.S. government to protect its citizens at all cost and whatever way it takes. Instead of sending 21,000 troops to Iraq to help them, just send the 21,000 down to the Mexican border and protect the American people.

Claude Wallace,
Cleveland.


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