The Sun-Times, in its usual stance, asks, “Where is the crime in coming to the U.S. looking for work?” There’s no crime in looking for work, but if you slipped in over the border or overstayed you’re visa, that is illegal. And the administration is perfectly justified in wanting people here illegally to be sent home.
On a side note, as someone who is a life long Chicagoan, I resent Chicago authorities wanting us to be a sanctuary city. No one asked me if I wanted Chicago to be one, and I strongly suspect most Chicagoans are not in favor. Former mayor Richard J. Daley is rolling in his grave.
In a city laying off teachers and not able to afford hiring more police, where is the money from the city’s dubious legal action coming from?
Donald Croker, Mount Greenwood
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Blaming immigrants for Chicago crime is ‘off-base’
Regarding Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his feud with Mayor Rahm Emmanuel over Chicago’s sanctuary city status and federal funding for policing, the A.G. is off-base.
Immigrants, legal and otherwise, are blamed for crimes committed disproportionately by legal citizens who, it appears, are engaged in a citywide battle for drug turf. Ironically, Sessions’ call to step up the “war on drugs” will only make things worse.
Blaming immigrants is just a continuation of President Donald Trump’s campaign rhetoric and plays right into his base.
John Hankes, Geneva
A.G. Sessions stuck in a ‘truth-free bubble’
Living in a truth-free bubble must be a prerequisite for being affiliated with the Trump Administration. What else explains Attorney General Jeff Sessions saying that Chicago is in the middle of an “unprecedented violent crime surge?”
While Chicago leaders should not pat themselves on the back for the current crime situation, it is hardly unprecedented and has often been quite a bit worse.
This statement from Sessions doesn’t even live in the same ward as the truth, and they certainly don’t shop at the same Jewel.
Don Anderson, Oak Park
Kinzinger nuclear plan needs free market
U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger makes some valid points regarding the virtues of nuclear power. It does provide a valuable supply of dependable base-load power. But, nuclear is currently losing ground in the U.S. with two large reactors in South Carolina recently abandoned mid-construction. A big part of the reason this happened is the current glut of cheap natural gas from the fracking boom, which, due to its low generating cost, undermines the potential profits of nuclear plants.
Kinzinger also mentions another aspect of nuclear generation: it does not emit carbon. This is a key feature of nuclear, in light of the increasing risks of disruptive climate change, caused by emissions from fossil fuels. Although burning fossil fuels is imposing increasing costs on all of us and will particularly harm future generations, we currently do not ask emitters to pay any of those costs. We should do so by placing a small but slowly rising tax on fossil fuels, based on their carbon content. That would benefit non-emitting forms of energy, such as nuclear and renewables. It would also stimulate investment, innovation and implementation of many cleaner technologies which are desperately needed due to climate change, but are challenged to compete against cheap fossil fuels. By returning the tax to households as a monthly rebate, this way of pricing carbon would be fair to low-income Americans, would promote economic growth and would be effective for addressing climate change.
I hope the congressman will embrace this free market approach to aiding nuclear power in the U.S.
Wharton Sinkler, Des Plaines
