I believe B.J. Taylor’s “Anchors away” letter (Times 9/15) is an example of using almost correct information to rally people to a cause by appealing to their prejudices.

Senator Howard did make the comments cited, however, that was taken from a speech, in committee, and he did author the first section of the 14th Amendment which reads:

“Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

The balance refers to other matters related to representation and who was to be considered in determining numbers related to it.

The Supreme Court, in a number of cases over the last four decades, has determined not only that aliens, even illegal aliens, are “persons” as defined in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, but also that their status is increasingly indistinguishable from that of citizens.

So while the Constitution gives to Congress the sole authority to determine how many immigrants may enter the country, how immigrants can become citizens of the United States, and whether those immigrants should be able to avail themselves of the benefits of U.S. citizenship, the court has chosen on several occasions to ignore the express direction of the founders and usurp that authority for itself.

In closing, most recent Pew Research indicates births to unauthorized-immigrant parents rose sharply from 1980 to the mid-2000s, but has dipped since then, echoing overall population trends for unauthorized immigrants and is presently around 295,000 and continuing to drop.