No more DHS.

In the May 15 cover story "Abusing Homeland Security" by William Norman Grigg, Leander Pickett said in reference to being handcuffed and threatened by two Department of Homeland Security officials for asking them to stop obstructing a school-bus loading zone: "If this is Homeland Security, I think we ought to be a little afraid." I beg to differ; I think we should be very afraid.

The Department of Homeland Security needs to be abolished completely. Their escalating Gestapo-like tactics and abuses of power threaten the constitutional freedoms of all Americans. Rather than allowing an all-powerful and autonomous faction to oversee our national security, every effort should be made to shore up existing departments such as the FBI and CIA and make them more interactive with each other to ensure effectiveness.

Also, a comprehensive overhaul of both the FBI and CIA needs to be done, along with a thorough housecleaning of corrupt agents. Fresh recruits that have no ties to federal officials or lobbyists need to be brought in to replace the entrenched cronies of the administration.

The welfare and future of the entire country is at stake. We need to euthanize this mad dog before it is totally uncontrollable.

LINDA NAVROTH

Culver City, California 

I was just reading the article on "Homeland Security" in the May 15 issue and found yet another attempt to steal our freedoms, under the obfuscation of "security."

The Department of Homeland Security is a federal administrative one; hence, it has no judicial powers and has no jurisdiction in the states, unless having to do with interstate commerce. Its personnel can act with force only in emergent circumstances, and since the DHS employees referred to in the Leander Pickett incident were out of their jurisdiction> they could act only in the same capacity as any other citizen--as would a Salt Lake City policeman in Sacramento. Clearly the school incident was not emergent, and so the agents involved were clearly acting criminally. Even the left-wing liberal Ninth Circuit Court of Schlemiels has held many times that if anyone is acting outside the parameters of their positions, they are personally liable.

I strongly suggest that the people involved file civil suit, and also find a way, if possible, to bring criminal action. In addition, the local sheriff should be reprimanded for not doing his job, requiring these agents to register with his office before being allowed into his county. Your article "Support Your Local Sheriff" in the November 15, 2004, issue discussed this.

One last thought: the Second Circuit Court of Appeals found last year that, absent a valid court order, the incursionary actions of the IRS (and thus all administrative agencies) have no legal force and effect: see Schultz v. IRS.

LEE D. WIGHT, DDS 

Colfax, California

While the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been checking grandma's shoes at the airport for explosives (May 15 issue), hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens paraded down our main streets on May Day. Three hundred thousand people from the Middle East (many of them potential terrorists) were apprehended last year trying to enter the United States illegally. How many more hundreds of thousands got through successfully?

Yet, there has been no serious effort by the Bush administration or by the U.S. Congress to close our borders or beef up our Border Patrol.

Clearly the DHS has been directed by the Bush administration to look the other way as the alien invasion continues. Congress, which voted to create the atrocious DHS, has also been twiddling its thumbs while our security problems escalate. The House and Senate internal security committees were abolished decades ago. In addition, the U.S. Senate (and possibly the House) appears on the point of compounding our security problems by granting amnesty to more than 12 million illegal aliens already residing in our country.

The good news is that the November elections are approaching, and if the public is aroused, much of this professional dead wood can be replaced with patriots who will defend our borders and our country!

LAWRENCE BURKE

Roslyn, New York