Letter to the editor: A law based on illegality

OPINION:

The leaked details of the Senate border bill being negotiated by Sen. James Lankford, Oklahoma Republican, are unacceptable (“Sen. James Lankford, lead Republican negotiator on border deal, censured by home state GOP,” web, Jan. 28).

We are supposed to be a nation of laws, and any new law that opens with sanctioning violations of existing law is on its face contradictory and ludicrous. Our law defines entry into the U.S. outside of designated channels as illegal, which means not lawful and not allowed. To propose a new law that accepts any number of law violators is to subvert the logic of our legal system, whether the threshold is two per day or 5,000 per day.

Legal entry has evolved thoughtfully over generations. It includes measures to ensure that citizens are not likely to be harmed medically, criminally, militarily, financially or otherwise. Borders define a nation.

If new legislation proposes ignoring immigration criteria, it is proposing that we accept redefining all of the thoughtful components of the legal system we inherited. It is an oxymoron, and anyone proposing it should be impeached for irrationality or stupidity.

I have no prior ax to grind with Mr. Lankford, but if he is peddling this, he should not be representing U.S. citizens.

ROBERT KLAUS

Amissville, Virginia