Waterloo Records
'Suspected Illegal' Immigrants Are Guilty Until Proven Innocent
RECEIVED Fri., Nov. 2, 2007
Dear Editor,
I am aghast! If I infer correctly from the Chronicle ("WilCo's Latest Snafu," Nov. 2) [News], as an immigrant I could well be in detention with my family (had I any other family than my wife).
Throughout this article, Patricia Ruland refers to the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Center as "a detention facility for immigrant families.” Does this mean that perfectly legal, perfectly innocent immigrant families are locked up in the T. Don? Then why am I not?
I thought an answer might be found on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement website, which says a whole lot of stuff about immigrant families who sneaked across the border and keeping them together until their immigration status hearings are held – in other words "suspected illegal" immigrants and not perfectly legal, perfectly innocent ones.
As I know neither Patricia Ruland nor the (presumably) nice person who put together the ICE website, could somebody please tell me which is correct?
(Tongue removed from cheek.) Your liberal credentials do you justice, Chronicle, but skewing stories à la Rush Limbaugh by omitting such details only bolsters the cause of your opponents.
I am aghast! If I infer correctly from the Chronicle ("WilCo's Latest Snafu," Nov. 2) [News], as an immigrant I could well be in detention with my family (had I any other family than my wife).
Throughout this article, Patricia Ruland refers to the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Center as "a detention facility for immigrant families.” Does this mean that perfectly legal, perfectly innocent immigrant families are locked up in the T. Don? Then why am I not?
I thought an answer might be found on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement website, which says a whole lot of stuff about immigrant families who sneaked across the border and keeping them together until their immigration status hearings are held – in other words "suspected illegal" immigrants and not perfectly legal, perfectly innocent ones.
As I know neither Patricia Ruland nor the (presumably) nice person who put together the ICE website, could somebody please tell me which is correct?
(Tongue removed from cheek.) Your liberal credentials do you justice, Chronicle, but skewing stories à la Rush Limbaugh by omitting such details only bolsters the cause of your opponents.
John Blackley
[News Editor Michael King responds: We welcome John Blackley to the United States of America, where he enjoys the freedom to condescend to those less fortunate than he. For the record, the families detained at the ICE detention center are not guilty until proven innocent, rather the reverse – and until then, just as "perfectly innocent" as Blackley. And the children imprisoned there, of course, are guilty of nothing at all – even more "innocent" than Blackley.]
