The Panda Express 11 Article Disgusted Me!
I read, with great disgust, your article on "The Panda Express 11" (Nov. 6). It amazes me that you people can be so supportive of criminals! Illegal aliens are criminals by the very fact that they are here! They are in violation of international law and should be treated as the criminals they are.I was further enraged by the mention that they got their educations in local schools! Thankfully, we voted down the budget increase the Tucson Unified School District wanted! It seems we now have to find a way of registering children in our schools to stop criminals from attending. I wonder how they paid for the education? I hope immigration officers show up to their lectures and deport all of them!
Illegal aliens cost the American taxpayers billions every year. The economy is a mess. The answer is to stop funding all the illegal-alien programs we have. Cut federal aid to all cities that are sanctuaries to illegal aliens!
It does not surprise me to see such a biased and liberal spin on the plight of the poor illegal-alien victims in your little paper. Given your recent endorsements, I'm sure you would just hand the keys of the city to the next batch across the border. Thankfully, there are still real Americans out here to protect our nation from the criminals and terrorists you would just hand it to!
Ray Morris
The Panda Express 11 Article Made Me Sick to My Stomach!
It made me sick to my stomach to read your article on the "Panda Express 11." Not only do these illegal immigrants not follow the laws; they don't even know the laws! Their own attorney even claims that they didn't know stealing people's identities and using fake documents is a crime. That's mind-blowing. One of the reasons we have immigration laws is so that people from other countries can assimilate to the United States. One of the aspects of assimilation is learning the laws.Where do these people get off claiming they have the right to work in the United States? Being a human being on the planet Earth does not give you the right to a job in the United States. These people are talking like they are entitled to jobs in foreign countries.
Someone needs to relay to Mexicans that illegal immigration is a crime that can separate you from your children. This should be a big deterrent to breaking into the U.S. It's not inhumane. It happens to Americans, too. It's the way our justice system works. There are millions of U.S. citizens in jails in the U.S. who are separated from their families. They're not bad people. They just chose to break a law where one of the possible consequences is separation from your family.
Why does the Tucson Weekly constantly do these awful pro-illegal stories? The vast majority of Arizonans just made it clear in the recent elections how sick of illegal immigration they are. Why don't you do some articles detailing the damage done by illegal immigration? Those are the stories in which most Arizonans are interested. Plus, printing the truth is just good journalism.
Bryan Smith
The Panda Express 11 Article Scapegoated Others in the Immigration Detention Facilities!
Thank you for thoughtfully telling this story and humanizing the ugliness of how we, as a nation, enforce our immigration laws.I feel one cautionary point of clarification is needed: The individuals you profiled are extremely compelling and speak honestly and courageously about their experiences in the Eloy and Florence immigration detention facilities.
That said, I couldn't help but wince in response to the underlying tone of the article, which clearly resonated as though the subjects of the article--hardworking people just trying to make a better life--did not belong in detention, and that the other detainees they were confined with were the real criminals.
Not one of the nearly 3,000 men and women detained in the Eloy and Florence detention facilities is in custody to serve a criminal sentence. They are all detained in these prison-like facilities under civil immigration law to facilitate their deportation. The Eloy and Florence detainees who do have criminal histories served their time before they were placed in immigration detention facilities. Their offenses may be decades old, and the overwhelming majority of them are minor.
I understand the article was written to profile the individual stories of the Panda Express 11, but I submit that the same scapegoating tendencies about "criminals" that have facilitated us locking up more than 2.3 million people in prison are behind how it has become sadly acceptable to refer to human beings, like the subjects of the article, as "illegals."
Lindsay Marshall, Executive director, The Florence Project
The Panda Express 11 Article Showed Blatant Disregard for the Law!
The only tragedy associated with the Panda Express 11 was that store management wasn't prosecuted for hiring illegal aliens. These illegals are the poster children for why workplace enforcement needs to be retroactive for every Arizona employer. The fact that their Social Security numbers were made up or that of a deceased individual is irrelevant and illustrates perfectly the culture of criminality illegal aliens routinely engage in. Their blatant disregard for and contempt for U.S. law is beyond reprehensible.Rick Cunnington
