Letters: Lax immigration policy led to MS-13 killings

I have just finished reading “A mother, a murder and MS-13” [News, Sept. 20], Newsday’s special report with ProPublica about the MS-13 victims on Long Island. After sorting through criticisms of the Suffolk County Police Department, I wondered whether any future segments will detail the immigration status of the more than 240 MS-13 gang members arrested in the past two years. I hope Newsday will tell us how many of those arrested came as unaccompanied minors.

MS-13 is believed to be responsible for 25 killings on Long Island in 2016 and 2017. That is horrific. By comparison, during the same period, 20 U.S. military personnel were killed in the war we’re fighting in Afghanistan. I believe many of the local killings could have been prevented with a border wall or better immigrant screening. Yet critics ridicule President Donald Trump. Go figure.

Richard Conte, Levittown

Editor’s note: The writer is a retired NYPD officer.

Your in-depth article on the MS-13 “killing fields” does its best to put the blame on the Suffolk County Police Department, but blatantly ignores the immigration status of MS-13 ringleader and alleged killer Jairo Saenz, as well as what I view as the open-borders policy that brought him and his fellow gang members to what were our safe suburbs.

Saenz illegally entered America as one of thousands of unaccompanied minors during the surge in 2014 under the Obama administration. They were described as victims seeking safety in America by many organizations and media, Newsday included. By the time Miguel Garcia Moran’s mother went to the police to report him missing, he had already been massacred by machete.

While no number of Spanish-speaking police officers could have stopped that, effective borders deterring illegal immigration and proper screening of all those entering our country could have. Instead, Carlota Moran and countless U.S. citizens live in a nightmare created by violent criminal immigrants who have been recklessly welcomed into our country.

Mike Simonelli, Smithtown

Editor’s note: The writer is a Suffolk County police officer.

Albany should end state-judge elections

Thanks, Newsday, for your Sept. 21 editorial, “Playing politics with judgeships.” I have long advocated an end to voting for judges. Now would be the time to do it, or maybe next year, if the governor and new State Legislature smell the coffee and deal with corruption.

David Zielenziger, Great Neck

Ex-priest Bourgeois violated doctrine

Writer Roy Bourgeois’ critical op-ed, “Catholic Church must face reality” [Opinion, Sept. 25], would have readers believe that the Vatican gave him a month to recant his support for women’s ordination, and that he was expelled from the priesthood for holding this view. This is factually inaccurate.

Bourgeois was expelled in 2012 for his participation in an invalid ordination of a woman in 2008. It was his conduct, not his views, that got him thrown out. Moreover, no religion allows its clergy to violate its teachings with impunity. Bourgeois is no victim.

Bill Donohue, Manhattan

Editor’s note: The writer is president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, an advocacy organization.

Make sure your mail requires a signature

I’d like to add my rotten experience to those of a reader who told about stolen cash and gift cards [“Frustration over apparent mall theft,” Just Sayin’, Sept. 22]. In July, I sent a $100 gift certificate to a friend to say thank you. I sent it by Priority Mail. It was never received, though the post office website showed it was delivered. I went to the post office to complain and discovered I had no recourse. I contacted a postal inspector, who was “very sorry” — and told me that the $50 insurance that comes with Priority Mail would not be paid because my package was confirmed delivered.

Will you call the police and report it stolen?, I asked. No, I was told. “We don’t do that.”

My advice: Make sure what you send requires that the recipient sign for it.

Joanne Schmidt, North Babylon

Disability doctor should go free

It is incredible that the prison sentence of Dr. Peter Lesniewski has not been commuted. As reported in “LIRR disability claims plunge” [News, Sept. 24.], more than 90 percent of disability cases on behalf of Long Island Rail Road employees were re-examined “and won back their benefits — even under more stringent screening standards.”

That means, for the 100 patients over 10 years he says he saw, Lesniewski is in prison for making correct and accurate diagnoses! His eight-year sentence was calculated on payouts obtained in a supposedly fraudulent manner. But there was no fraud, as subsequent, independent and more stringent examinations proved. Where is the justice?

Newsday should investigate further. Peter Lesniewski, a member of my congregation, should be released and have his medical license reinstated immediately, with an apology from the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which in 2017 rebuffed his bid for exoneration.

Rev. Robert Walderman,

Levittown,

Editor’s note: The writer is pastor of Lynbrook Baptist Church.