Editor, Gazette-Journal:

This is in reference to Jim Knupp’s letter (“We all would suffer,” Sept. 19 Readers Write). His letter decries the Republican’s stance on illegal immigration, which includes deportation of illegals.

Interestingly, Mr. Knupp says to vote Harris/Walz/Mehta. The Southern border debacle is a direct result of the Biden/Harris policy that has allowed 10+ million illegals into this nation. For reference, that number is higher than the individual populations of 36 of the 50 states. I welcome deportation of criminal illegals, and those living on the backs of the American taxpayer.

Mr. Knupp says these illegals have “assimilated” into our society. If by assimilation he means living off the taxpayers, he’s correct.

Consider these facts from the Washington Examiner. The foreign-born working age population, aged 25 to 64, increased by 4 million from July 2022 to July 2024. During this time, foreign-born employment increased only 2.32 million. For the nation’s most extreme example, consider California, which now offers illegal aliens free (taxpayer funded) health insurance, in-state tuition, WIC food stamps, and potentially a $150,000 handout for down payment on a home. Even before the taxpayer-provided health insurance is counted, illegal immigrants generated $8.5 billion in state and local taxes but received $22.8 billion in taxpayer-funded benefits.

The Center for Immigration Reform estimates that nationally, 59 percent of illegal households use at least one major welfare program. And this is before counting the cost to house, feed, and clothe the thousands of illegals bused under cover of night to northern cities.

While the deportation of illegals is a plan that will never come to fruition, it is a far better starting point than maintaining the border crisis we now have. Democrats support this invasion. Not because they are sympathetic, but because they see a future where illegals will be granted amnesty and the right to vote.

A nation without borders is not a nation. We are not the world’s flophouse.

Bill Wallace
Gloucester, Va.