Immigration: Both sides free to speak up

Re: “Don’t blame detention centers,” (TNT letter, 7/8).

Seeking asylum is not a crime. Refugees who have brought their children to the formerly welcoming shores of America are not guilty of child abuse but rather are doing everything in their power to save their children.

Protesters at the Northwest Detention Center are showing their dismay at the direction the country is taking, back to the bad old days of rounding people up. They are exercising the treasured American right of free speech.

If the letter writer disagrees with them and feels America cannot accommodate more refugees, most likely those such as his own ancestors, and that America should not be the rich melting pot that it is, that is certainly his right.

I personally would fight to the death his right to say it. That’s the America I believe in.

My respectful advice, though, is to not make rationalizations to justify terrible acts.