It’s the illegal parents’ fault

Columnist Esther J. Cepeda wrote that we, the legal hardworking taxpayers, should feel guilty for the 5,100 children who have been left behind when illegal immigrant parents have been deported. Cepeda missed the point that if the illegal parents had not been here, their children would not be here either and we would not have the problem or expense to raise them.

The credit for the research is given to “The Applied Research Center, a New York-based social justice public policy institute.” I wonder who funds this institute. Why hasn’t the institute conducted a study on how many illegal immigrants are in gangs, how many are in jail, how many crimes they have committed, and how many are on public aid, and with all the freebies that they get -- schools, hospitals, utilities, housing, and God knows what else? We, the legal Americans, pay for them but are being blamed, when in fact those who broke the law should be the ones that should be punished.

If the 5,100 are being treated badly, let’s send them back with their parents, where they will be treated like royalty.

Silvio Pontarelli

Mount Prospect