Who are sanctuary laws protecting?

Editor: How many murders have to occur before Democrats wake up to their stupid sanctuary laws and their insane opposition to a border wall?

Last week, once-deported Gustavo Garcia shot and killed innocent Visalia resident Rocky Jones.

Now this week Newman police officer, Ronil Singh, 33 years old, was shot and killed by another undocumented immigrant.

Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson called the killing a “senseless act of violence” during a press conference and confirmed the illegal alien status of the officer’s accused killer.

“Unlike Ron, who immigrated to this country lawfully and legally to pursue his lifelong career of public safety, public service in being a police officer, this suspect is in our country illegally,” Christianson said.

“He doesn’t belong here,” Christianson said. “He’s a criminal. We will find him. We will arrest him and we will bring him to justice.”

Yes, many immigrants who cross the border seek a better life. However, many are criminals, gang members, human traffickers, and cartel drug dealers. They need to be screened out and stopped, not coddled and protected.

Let us love our neighbors within this country and without by securing the border and making the United States a safe haven for citizens and legal immigrants.

Shame on Congressman Jerry McNerney for opposing funding for a border wall. Shame on State Senator Cathleen Galgiani and Assemblyman Jim Cooper for supporting sanctuary laws that protect criminals. GREG GOEHRING Lodi

Editor: Republican solons who returned to Washington, D.C., recently to vote on a proposal to fund President Donald Trump’s wall on the U.S.-Mexico border may be checking their voter registration records. The bilious wanna-be-billionaire suggested those who voted against the wall are Democrats.

But the chief executive went further in his blathering. He claimed, erroneously, that federal employees reporting for work but not being paid are enrolled in the opposition party, according to a Dec. 27 report by Bloomberg’s Alyza Sebenius:

“Donald Trump said that most federal employees who are not receiving paychecks because of the U.S. government shutdown are Democrats, after characterizing them as supporters of the wall and partial government shutdown only days ago.

“‘Do the Dems realize that most of the people not getting paid are Democrats?’ Trump tweeted, prompting outrage from some congressional rivals.

“Trump provided no evidence to support the claim, but he has been trying to blame Democrats for the partial government shutdown .... He told reporters ... that furloughed federal workers are sympathetic to the shutdown because they support the wall ....

“Virginia Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the chamber’s intelligence committee, called Trump’s tweet ‘outrageous,’ adding ... that ‘federal employees don’t go to work wearing red or blue jerseys’.”

Partisan politics are not an aspect of the Mexican standoff in the Oval Office. Trump’s childish insistence on getting his way is the issue.

Perhaps ultra-right-wing commentators, who had criticized The Donald for appearing to back off insistence on building the barrier, should be held accountable for damaging the national civil service. Or they should share blame with a president who is clearly mentally ill.

Certainly the Democrats’ principled opposition to Trump is partially why his wall’s plans have come atumbling down. But those people hold office; it’s their obligation to take such positions.

Abused public employees do not deserve Republicans’ opprobrium. They do their jobs regardless of the party in power, and their own party affiliation. Trump’s lies are poisonous. LANGE WINCKLER Lodi

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