Our economy will pay the price for mass deportations | Opinion

Numbers don’t add up

“Deporting 1 million undocumented immigrants a year is much easier than you think” (sacbee.com, Dec. 19, 2024)

David Mastio, I am writing in response to your article. While you claim that this plan is affordable and legal, your analysis overlooks how inhumane and disruptive mass deportation would be.

Deporting 1 million immigrants per year would not only tear apart families, especially to those whose children were born in the U.S.A., but would also harm our economy. According to the American Immigration counsel, undocumented immigrant households paid nearly $89.8 billion in taxes in 2023. While you state that $31.5 billion a year isn’t a lot, the contribution undocumented immigrants provide outweigh the cost of deportation. Instead the $31.5 billion that could be used to help improve the immigration system.

Additionally, you claim that deportation would focus on dangerous criminals; however, CBS News reported that since the beginning of 2025, about 40% of detainees were not held for violent offenses, and only 8% had been convicted of violent crimes.

So rather than deporting undocumented immigrants, we should focus on humane ways to help improve and strengthen our country.

Joanna Jimenez, Fresno

ICE raids not civil

Imagine you are picked up by masked unidentified men and shipped to a detention center. You are white, have held a good job for the past 20 years and contribute positively to society in this country. Reason for your detention? You had a speeding ticket which is known as a civil violation.

Imagine you are picked up by masked unidentified men and shipped to a detention center. You are Latino, have held a good job for the past 20 years and contribute positively to society in this country. Reason for your detention? You are undocumented which is known as a civil violation.

Note that in both situations, the victims are not criminals although the US President paints all the members of one group as criminals, rapists, gang members, etc.

Studies show that undocumented people in the US are less likely to commit crimes than U.S. citizens. In California, they paid $8.5 billion in state and local taxes in 2022 and pay into Social Security and Medicare through payroll taxes — programs that they are typically barred from accessing.

Congress must develop a plan for citizenship that works instead of having these crazy and destructive ICE agents destroying our communities.

Stephen Sacks, Fresno

Fong’s bad vote

It has been said that a budget is a moral document; you fund what you value.

Rep. Vince Fong (R, CA-20) voted in favor of the GOP budget bill and published a press release to explain his decision.

Fong values wealth protection, in the form of estate tax shelter and deductions that benefit ultra-wealthy families and agribusiness. He does not value providing broad financial support that would benefit most of his constituency.

Fong believes that poverty is a consequence of personal failures, not structural barriers. This is why he voted for work requirements and benefit cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.

Fong values a militarized police force that prioritizes control over compassion. He doesn’t care about methods to improve immigration, Visas, or the asylum system.

Fong values symbolic wins over real solutions.

Rebecca B. Camarena, Lemoore

Don’t freeze grants

“Millions in grants for Fresno, Clovis districts delayed as Trump freezes money” (fresnobee.com, July 3)

I’m with a lot of people in Fresno and Clovis who are worried about the freeze on those education grants. These grants pay for important stuff like mental health help and after-school tutoring, things a lot of kids really need. I have a close friend who is an after-school teacher, and he tells me how much they are struggling.

The money was already approved, so it’s frustrating that politics are holding it up and making things harder for students. It’s the kind of thing people should keep talking about, so it doesn’t just disappear from the news.

Our schools and students depend on this support every day, and delays like this only make things tougher. I really hope the government listens and gets the money moving soon.

Until then, we need to keep raising our voices and making sure people don’t forget what’s at stake.

Talon Joseph Furse, Fresno

Bad use of A.I.

“Fresno Unified spokesperson resigns after A.I. scandal involving teachers union” (fresnobee.com, July 2)

How can the leader of a large school district not see that creating quotes and passing them off as legitimate is antithetical to the mission of education? How can this leader admit to not checking the sources of the fabricated quotes? Why even spend district time and energy creating this document? To what end? To benefit whom? How can this leader then ask others to not make an issue of the document, to “move on”?

One has to inquire about this superintendent’s own education and how the individual completed university-level academic work. How diligent is this person — as a student, as a teacher, as a superintendent?

This situation is an embarrassment to the leadership of the district and to the school board that hired the superintendent and the chief communications officer? Are we really hiring the best candidates?

What these individuals have done contradicts the values of education and of our society and sets a disappointing example for the students, parents, teachers, and all employees of the district. It sets a low bar for expectations and performance, and the person responsible is the superintendent who accepts thousands of dollars to be a responsible, accountable, and trustworthy leader.

Kathleen Y. Markovich, Fresno