This is in response to Julie Tosswill’s comments regarding immigration laws (BDN, July 17); in particular, the comment, “The only problem is that the American people were never asked if we wanted to make the radical change to dissolve our borders and turn ourselves into a multilingual economic region.”

The United States of America will never “dissolve” our borders. Radical change? The sky isn’t falling. The Immigration and Naturalization Service has the task of processing those who ask for admittance and is required to deal with those who choose to enter illegally. We govern our nation by voting, phoning and writing our government officials and in the democratic process, sometimes taking our issues all the way to the Supreme Court.

As for the comment, “Any concerns we might have about this future is dismissed as racist and we are told this wonderful new change is good for us.” People have been asking permission to enter this country since our immigration laws were originally enacted. This isn’t a wonderful “new change.” The sky isn’t falling.

Both my parents were born in Canada and became U.S. citizens. My husband was born in Guam, a U.S. territory, and is a U.S. citizen. Currently, our new daughter-in-law, who was born in Thailand, is wading through a very long INS process, to acquire permanent residence in the United States.

The first application was “misplaced” by the INS and then, after reapplying, during the required interview she was told by the representative at the INS that she had a “false marriage.” In other words, she was accused of marrying my son, who is stationed in the U.S. Navy, only to acquire entrance to our country. The fact that she was married and gave birth to our grandson made no difference. The sky wasn’t falling.

Again, we have a democratic process and the determination by the INS representative was reviewed and a visitor’s visa was obtained. Entry into this country is not as easy as one would think.

Gwen Lujan

Eastport