Dear Editor:

I forgot an important fact in my last letter to this paper. According to the Dept. of Homeland Security, we have the same number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. today, as there was in 2005. We had not added a single one in the past 11 years.

The few that come into the U.S. are matched by the number that leave on their own. (See dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/publications/ois_ill_pe_2010.pdf) The story that the hate-mongers tell us about millions streaming across the border is a fairy tale.

Almost all of these people came anywhere from 1980 to 2005. During that time, they purchased homes, started businesses, had children and grandchildren. They did the same things that all immigrants to this country have ever done. They built a life for themselves.

Trump says he will get rid of not only the immigrants themselves, but all their offspring. He says that he does recognize a “birth right to citizenship.”

If he has his way, he will also need to confiscate everything that these people have built for themselves.

We have a statute of limitations for those who committed rape, assault, kidnapping and everything but murder. But Trump would offer no leniency for those who committed the worst crime of all: wanting too much to have a better life for themselves and their families.

John Pankowicz

Boothbay Harbor