DEAR EDITOR:

I am writing in rebuttal of how some leaders and others in the religious community and charities justify aiding undocumented immigrants with seeing the face of Jesus in everyone. This is enabling people to break our immigration laws.

First, charity begins at home. Has anybody looked around to see the suffering among our own American citizens? Everywhere I turn lately, I see businesses closing permanently, which indicates money isn’t growing on trees in America. Joe Biden is running the USA into the ground financially with the war in Ukraine.

The COVID-19 pandemic hurt this country financially and wrecked people’s health, if it didn’t kill them.

Ohio’s increase in real estate taxes is causing hardship to senior citizens; some may lose their homes or relatives must help pay the taxes.

This wretched inflation is causing people to scramble financially to pay bills and put food on the table.

Where was the outcry from religious leaders in churches when they were told to close their doors during COVID-19, denying Catholics the sacraments and allowing people to die without receiving the last rites? It looks like the face of Jesus got blurred during the pandemic.

I didn’t hear any outcry from religious leaders denouncing the horrible abuse of power on the open border debacle. You might change your tone if you are a victim of a terrorist who came through the open border.

Every country has immigration laws; the USA is no exception. At present, abuse of power is ignoring our immigration laws and jamming this wicked agenda down the American people’s throats.

I see the face of Jesus in my fellow countrymen who suffer — not in illegal immigrants’ faces. I don’t hate these people; I don’t appreciate our laws being broken and our country being burdened with mass migration destroying our national identity, overwhelming our social services at our expense.

There is a way to enter this country lawfully, and it needs to be addressed and enforced. My relatives came through Ellis Island and were put through the wringer to get here. They didn’t receive help from the government or lodging at a hotel, medical cards, monetary assistance and now cell phones. They worked in the steel mills and had the worst jobs.

Knock it off with the guilt trip. American citizens are suffering and have had enough. We don’t need anybody else’s burden heaped on us!

BRENDA KENJEVARI

Youngstown