The Perspective of Memories

To the editor:

Reading the October 9, 2026, Opinion pages of the “Record” brought back some memories. Memories can help us keep things in perspective. In 1986 I bought the empty promises of immigration enforcement that were tendered us to the point of writing letters of protest on behalf of the children of illegal immigrants excluded from Texas public schools and of volunteering to tutor in our language some of those children who were living seventeen-toa- bungalow in E. Austin. Forty years ago I supposed that nothing could imperil the United States of America, not even flagrant disregard of a nation’s right to control its own borders. This one time, to cope with a fait accompli--persons here illegally then numbered only a few million--we could afford to mitigate the letter of the law. Or so I reasoned. Now, instead of there being three million, there are estimated to be at least twenty million. We have been to this rodeo before. How long will it be before we take thought for the future of the American people, who--be it noted--were never asked if they wanted illegal mass immigration in defiance of their own laws?