Lack of trust sinks hopes for immigration overhaul: Your Say

Speaker Paul Ryan said the House won’t vote on immigration legislation as long as President Obama is in office. Comments from Facebook are edited for clarity and grammar:

I agree with Speaker Ryan, even though I would love to see immigration reform pass and see many of my friends obtain a much-awaited and deserved legal status.

Good immigration reform accomplishes two things: legalization and enforcement. It can only be passed in a bipartisan manner when the two sides give and take and trust each other to fulfill their promises.

It is obvious that our president is not willing to implement the kind of enforcement that would be necessary to get Republicans on board.

— Juan Alvarez

This has nothing to do with trust in President Obama. It’s about trust in House Speaker Paul Ryan. To bring up an immigration reform bill, without the assent of a majority of the Republican Party, would require relying on Democratic votes. That would be a poison pill.

The immigration issue continues to be the gift that keeps on giving to politicians of all persuasions. It lets them puff their chests in mighty faux expressions of outrage. Until it costs more to do nothing than it costs to do something reasonable, that won’t change.

— Dan Porath

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Letters to the editor:

House Speaker Paul Ryan’s excuse on immigration could be used on any subject: We don’t trust/like the president, so we aren’t going to do anything (“Paul Ryan: ‘Get serious about enforcing our laws’”). Wasn’t it Republicans who met the night of President Obama’s first inauguration and agreed to mount a war against anything Obama would try to do during his presidency? Now they whine about trust? Don’t members of Congress do the same thing they are accusing Obama of doing by refusing to fund parts of the government so it cannot perform its duties? In addition, if no bill is passed, Obama surely can’t enforce it. Ryan, when you point a finger at someone else, you point three fingers back at yourself.

Curtis Freeberg; Byron, Ill.

There is a legal way to enter this country that the police, as well as the executive and legislative branches of government, need to enforce.

In 1944, my mother-in-law entered this country, via Ellis Island, from Belgium. She married my father-in-law and set about learning the English language and seeking citizenship the correct way: taking classes and tests, and submitting an application. She spent many years as a proud American.

Congress and the president need to enforce the laws that are in place. If you are here illegally, you should be deported. If you cross the border illegally, you should be jailed and deported. In addition, babies born here from women who enter illegally should not be allowed automatic citizenship.

Randall W. Klotz; Germantown, Ohio