Inflaming California
Re “Trump arrives, unedited,” April 29
As usual, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump spouts fictitious data and shamelessly trots out giant photos of select people slain by immigrants alleged to have been in the country illegally to incite the ire of his supporters and immigration foes. The implication is that most killings in California would not occur if we built a giant wall on our southern border and curtailed immigration.
However, legal, American-born residents of the U.S. commit far more crimes than immigrants, whether they are legal or illegal. Further, native-born people are much more likely to end up in jail or prison due to criminal offenses than undocumented immigrants. Most Mexican immigrants in prison are there because they were caught being illegal, not because they raped, murdered or assaulted someone.
The truth doesn’t seem to matter to Trump or his supporters. They would rather stir the pot and then stand by and smile while protests erupt into violence around them. Rebecca Nunnelee Santa Monica
I am not a Trump fan. He is the Frankenstein created by the crazy denizens of the Republican Party.
But your picture of the masked protester waving the Mexican flag makes me want to gag. That person should go to the country whose flag he flies. He doesn’t belong in this country and is the reason Trump has his audiences.
Mexican Americans are part of our country; the flag they fly should be the stars and stripes. The protester with the Mexican flag should take it to Mexico with him. S.R. Fischer Los Angeles
You saw the riot at Trump’s rally in Costa Mesa. Multiply that by 5,000, add the National Guard, tear gas and maybe a water cannon or two, and you have the inauguration ceremony of Donald J. Trump.
A global embarrassment. Jay Taylor Tucson