I see that Mr. Buss is back to regurgitate more repulsive anti-immigrant propaganda (“Biden, and his immigration policies, are a mess”, published July 3).

It is difficult to understand the thought process of a man publicly congratulating himself for predicting that someone in their eighties would be noticeably old, and I doubt that I have the rhetorical skill to convince Mr. Buss to attempt to incorporate facts or sound reasoning into his political views (he cannot even be bothered to spell-check: it’s Newsom, not Newsome). Nevertheless, I’ll take a moment to explain his recent letter’s most egregious error for my own satisfaction and that of anyone else who finds unchecked xenophobia as loathsome as I do.

Mr. Buss argues that a heinous crime recently committed by two immigrants is evidence that Biden’s immigration policies have been worse for the nation than Trump’s; that we should deport anyone found crossing the border without having first obtained express permission to do so.

It is true that that specific crime would not have occurred if those specific men had not been able to enter the country. It is also true that there would likely be fewer incidences of rape and murder in the U.S. if harsher border policies were enacted, but only because there would almost inevitably be less total crime in America if there were fewer people in America.

A policy is not worth enacting nor morally tolerable merely because it would reduce crime. For example, if our government were to execute everyone convicted of theft, there would be less theft. Despite reducing crime, such a policy would be utterly absurd and downright evil (much like many of the ideas Mr. Buss believes are worth sharing). Study after study has shown that immigrants — whether they entered the country on a visa, have stayed via asylum claim, or are genuinely here illegally — commit less violent and property crime than American-born citizens. No correlation has been found between crime rates and immigration rates. In other words, without immigrants, per capita property and violent crime would actually increase. Non-citizen immigrants are also more likely to be employed than citizens. These people are, on average, a boon to our nation, not a burden.

The unsubstantiated narrative that illegal immigration is driving increased crime rates is a comforting fantasy for the weakest members of our society. It’s easier to create a class of villains from people different from oneself and to blame everything scary on them than to find compassion for or merely tolerate them. I hope other voters are more interested than Mr. Buss is in doing what is morally correct, instead of what is intellectually easiest.

Nancy Butler

Enumclaw