I never thought that enforcement of our federal immigration laws, or any other laws was “despicable”, since I write as one whose grandparents were all immigrants, as well as my father, who came to this country as a six-year-old boy. However, my grandparents came here legally and respected the laws of their soon-to-be adopted country, and neither was there an insanely generous welfare system here to greet them, since they arrived in 1907, when there wasn’t even income tax to fodder the monster that our government has become.

My late father, after becoming a citizen, always wanted “to do something for” his adopted country, and, even prior to the United States entering World War II, he became a member of Company B, 328th Combat Team, 26th Infantry Division, United States Army. In the Battle of the Bulge, he was very seriously wounded, and spent two months in a field hospital, nearly dying from his wounds. When he recovered, and returned to duty, on May 7, 1945, his unit assisted in the liberation of Gusen, which was the sister camp of the infamous Mauthausen concentration camp, and he saw first hand what a single-party totalitarian regime could do, and no one needed to tell him anything further about it.

There is nothing wrong with enforcing the law, and those who do not like existing laws should work to change them, rather than vilifying federal officers, who truly are brave.

Michael Fontes

West Tisbury