Mr. Rick Barker (April 3 letter) misses the forest for the trees in his response to my March 3 letter. Pursuing the deportation of Mr. Narciso Barranco is bad public policy for the reasons I outlined in my letter. It sends the wrong message to the members of our military whose parents may not have legal status in our country, or may be legal immigrants who fear being profiled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and detained, and possibly illegally arrested, during a so-called “Kavanaugh stop.”
While Mr. Barranco admittedly arrived in this country illegally, arresting and deporting him 30 years later and with three sons who served, like Mr. Barker, as U.S. Marines, is inhumane and serves no purpose other than cruelty. If that makes me a “bleeding heart,” then I will proudly wear that label in this case.
Philip Wasserman
Stevenson Ranch
