Here are this week’s letters to the editor of the Oshkosh Northwestern. See our letters policy below for details about how to share your views.
Moral courage needed in Washington, D.C.
“Alligator Alcatraz” is an outrage. This detention center is akin to Nazi death camps.
For a country that professes to be founded on Christian principles, this treatment of other human beings is immoral, unethical, unchristian, inhumane, against the 10 Commandments and just plain wrong!
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis professes to restore the Everglades, but this facility has so many environmental issues, as well as human issues. Where is the wastewater being treated? Where will it be dumped? Where is clean, sanitary water coming from?
Our country’s citizens need to protest and stand up against the bullies and corruption in Washington, D.C. We need to stand up for our Constitution; Bill of Rights; and moral, ethical, lawful and Christian behavior.
Our elected officials in Washington need to be replaced with new leaders who have moral courage.
Sharon Provinzano
Oshkosh
Why fear immigrants?
The current masked, unidentified, armed people who are terrorizing neighborhoods and businesses remind me of the KKK terror in our not-so-distant past.
Multiple studies have found that both legal and undocumented immigrants exhibit lower crime rates in the United States compared to native-born citizens.
Native-born Americans have a higher incarceration rate (1,221 per 100,000) than both legal immigrants (319 per 100,000) and undocumented immigrants (613 per 100,000), based on 2022-2023 data.
In 2020, immigrants were incarcerated at a rate 60% lower than U.S.-born citizens, continuing a trend spanning 150 years.
U.S.-born citizens have higher arrest rates for violent, drug and property crimes than undocumented immigrants.
Studies indicate no clear relationship between violent crime and immigration at the state level.
Increased immigration can even be associated with declining homicide rates in cities with established immigrant populations.
Undocumented immigrants are arrested for violent and property crimes at roughly half the rate of U.S.-born citizens.
A 2020 study using Texas data reported that immigrants had arrest rates for violent and drug crimes that were less than half those of U.S.-born citizens, and arrest rates for property crimes that were one-quarter as high.
Why do we want to pay high fees to private contractors to arrest people indiscriminately and keep them in expensive deplorable jails without following our constitutional laws?
Jesus spoke up for the “other.” We must speak up, or we are complicit in these crimes.
What exactly are you afraid of?
Deb Martin
Oshkosh
Our letters policy
Letters to the editor are published in the order in which they are received and letter-writers are limited to having one letter published per month. Letters can be emailed to oshkoshnews@thenorthwestern.com and Editor Brandon Reid at breid@gannett.com. Letters must meet specific guidelines, including being no more than 250 words and be from local authors or on topics of local interest. All submissions must include the name of the person who wrote the letter, their city of residence and a contact phone number. Letters are edited as needed for style, grammar, length, fairness, accuracy and libel.
This article originally appeared on Oshkosh Northwestern: Oshkosh letters call for ‘morale courage’ and ask ‘Why fear immigrants?’
Reporting by Oshkosh Northwestern / Oshkosh Northwestern
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