Your story “Portland corrects Le-Page: It is not a ‘sanctuary city’ “ (Sept. 16) is itself incorrect.

On June 2, 2003, city ordinance 2-21 went into effect. For all intents and purposes, it prohibits police from inquiring into the immigration status of anyone, even if they have committed a felony such as murder or rape.

Yes, the police can cooperate with other law enforcement agencies, but Portland police have no information to share regarding immigration status. Thus, Portland, by preventing the police from doing their job, is a sanctuary city, and illegal immigrants know it.

The fact is that Portland officials are trying to distance themselves from the “sanctuary city” designation because of the murder of a woman in San Francisco, allegedly by an admitted illegal immigrant.

Pseudo-Portland Mayor Michael Brennan has always treated the truth rather carelessly, and this is just another instance of his neglect.

Your Sept. 18 editorial, “Our View: ‘Sanctuary city’ jab part of anti-migrant message,” is also blatantly incorrect. I know of no one who is against legal immigration, but I know of many who oppose the illegal immigration that you continue to tout as legal.

People obtain visas to visit the U.S. They swear, in writing, to return to their country of origin upon expiration of that visa, when, in fact, they have no intention of returning.

Once they get here they apply for citizenship as “asylum seekers,” claiming they cannot return to their country because they had fled violence and persecution. It’s all just a scam.

How do I know it is a scam? Many of them, after being allowed to become U.S. citizens, then return, on vacation, to their home countries. The Boston Marathon bombers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, are shining examples of that, but I have read of numerous Portland people also returning to their “dangerous” homelands.

Harry White

Scarborough

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