Editor, Ceres Courier,

Our governor has been silent for a long time, even with the riots at UC Berkeley. Now, the silence has broken and we hear we are a "sanctuary state." I really do not know, but it seems we citizens should at least have a say in this? I do not care if you came legally to this country or are part of DACA, I care how we all behave and that we all obey the laws otherwise we create a special class of citizenship or even non-citizenship which seems to be what we are doing right now.

From what I read, it is a fact now - there is no other country that I know of in the world that is as liberal with their non-citizen residents. This event means that all of us are subject to the whim of our leaders and it seems to have no recourse.

Before anyone decides I am a bigot who hates immigrants, I am not - both sets of my grandparents were immigrants to this country. They all learned English and tried hard to be good Americans as I believe most immigrants to this country do. That makes me a second-generation American and I had given no thought to this until lately. This fact also means that my family was not in America during our slavery years. And they lived in a state that borders Canada which was not a slave state. In my family we are sympathetic to immigrants but totally believe that if you want to become a citizen, reside in our country for the rest of your life, vote, etc. you need to become a citizen. You can do it. Others have and my grandparents did not know how to speak English but overcame that problem by learning to speak it and in some cases, write it as well. And they died as citizens.

I am also wondering what recourse the federal government might have on a state that is going to deny the federal laws it does not want to obey?

There also appears to be some discussion about which laws California will or will not obey. Gee, can I make that decision for myself? Can I flaunt the law with no repercussions? I doubt it. Therefore, I expect if we, as a state, ignore federal laws that should apply to us, the feds may find ways to punish us and if so, we deserve it. We are not a country unto ourselves. We are part of a country and most of us want to stay that way.

Marie Evans