Turning our country into a banana republic.

A banana republic is a country whose economy is dependent on tourism and foreign investors and is one in which its elites pick and choose which laws to enforce.

If we are a nation of laws as our politicians keep "blabbering" about, why are we lemmings allowing Bush to "pick and choose" which laws to enforce? Why are we allowing his administration to encourage an accelerating invasion of desperate Third World aliens, both legal and illegal, to flood into every state of our country? As Patrick Buchanan says in his book State of Emergency, "Bush's refusal to stop the invasion and secure our borders is a historical dereliction of presidential and constitutional duty, which in times past would be reason for impeachment."

In the last 40 years, the United States has added 106 million people; and today, a million arrive legally and three million break into our country annually because Bush and Congress refuse for self-serving reasons to control our borders. As a result, taxpayers are being forced to pay for their babies, schooling, medical care, housing, criminal behavior, terrorism, diseases, and driving wrecks, while a few make mega millions off their labor. And, the consequences now negatively affect every aspect of our society. We face Balkanization; overpopulation; the loss of our language, culture, cohesiveness as a nation, and jobs; epidemics; degraded schools; bankrupted hospitals; a lowered standard of living; and loss of quality of life.

The Bush administration not only has refused to enforce our immigration laws, while pretending to do so, but also is now trying to intimidate those who do. Since it hasn't been able to push its self-serving agenda through administratively, it has turned to more devious methods such as trumped-up criminal charges, like those brought against two border agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean ("Border Patrol Agents Sentenced to Prison," November 13 issue). As T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, says: "The only thing that is clear is that government prosecutors pointed their guns at the wrong guys, the good guys, and they let the bad guy walk."

Now the Bush administration wants to send two good guys with clear records (agent Ramos was nominated Border Patrol Agent of the Year 2005) to prison for shooting in the butt a Mexican, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davilla, who was smuggling 743 pounds of marijuana into the United States. The smuggler was granted immunity and is now suing taxpayers for $5 million. For doing the jobs they were supposed to do, these two agents, Ramos and Compean, were sentenced to 11 years and 12 years respectively.

In an escalation of the battle with the American people over whether to enforce our immigration laws, both agents have been brutalized by the legal system and their lives and families are to be sacrificed.

JAMES F. ALDRIDGE

Anderson, South Carolina