Misleading Readers
To the editor:
In her recent letter, Sandy Hooper rightly encouraged citizens to educate themselves on current laws. However, a half-hour of research can easily lead to half-truths if one relies on selective data and personal preferences rather than established legal reality.
To begin, Ms. Hooper berates letters that “blatantly disregard the laws of America,” but she immediately turns around and claims the U.S. Supreme Court made a “huge mistake” regarding birthright citizenship. The law is settled. In the landmark 1898 case United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the Supreme Court confirmed that the 14th Amendment applies to children born on US soil, regardless of their parents’ status. It is a striking logical contradiction to champion the rule of law only when it aligns with your personal political views. It may just be me, but I think settled law is a law from 1898 that has been challenged many times and upheld for over 125 years. If that isn’t established law, the concept of established law doesn’t exist.
Next, Ms. Hooper’s letter confidently cites Texas Senate Bill 4 as an active, dayto- day operational reality for local law enforcement. In reality, SB4 has faced continuous challenges and blocks in federal court precisely because the U.S. Constitution grants immigration authority exclusively to the federal government. Presenting an ongoing, unsettled, highly contested federal lawsuit as a simple, settled state matter is disingenuous and highly misleading to local readers.
Finally, the statistic claiming 61% of unauthorized households use welfare is sourced from a well-known, “low-immigration” advocacy group. This metric is notoriously misleading because undocumented immigrants are legally barred from federal welfare programs. The study inflates its numbers by counting households with US citizen children who receive standard citizen benefits, like public school lunches. Let’s be perfectly clear: undocumented immigrants do not receive benefits from the federal welfare programs.
We can absolutely have robust, honest debates about border security and traffic codes in Fayette County. But if we are going to lecture our neighbors about doing their homework, we should make sure our own research relies on established constitutional jurisprudence rather than partisan think-tanks and conspiracy theories.