DHS regularly conducts aggressive raids on homes and workplaces that sometimes round up hundreds of people, often including citizens and legal residents.
One such raid took place in Anne Arundel County on Monday and arrested 45 people.
After such raids, those detained often do not have access to legal counsel or due process and are often also denied the right to speak with their families.
We certainly need workable solutions to our immigration problem that protect national security without sacrificing basic human rights and the dignity of the human person.
But until the federal government has a comprehensive immigration plan in place, such raids should stop.
Sister Agnes Oman, Salisbury
The writer is associate director of the Hispanic Ministry of the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, Del.
Push much faster for fuel efficiency
Four-dollar-per-gallon gasoline and rising electricity prices are the result of decades of failed American energy policy - a policy that has focused on giveaways to oil and gas companies while ignoring the fuel economy of our cars and trucks and failing to develop our vast potential to use renewable energy and increase our energy efficiency ("$4-a-gallon gas taking a toll," July 1).
For seven years, President Bush has been in a position to lower gasoline prices and lessen our dependence on foreign oil by working to raise fuel economy standards, and for seven years he refused to act.
If President Bush were truly serious about reducing gas prices, he would stop dragging his heels and fully implement the higher fuel economy standards Congress passed in December.
Unfortunately, the Bush administration has proposed regulations to implement that law that would increase average gas mileage by the smallest amount the law allows.
I urge the Bush administration to raise gas mileage at the fastest rate and by the largest amount the law allows.
Elizabeth Himeles, Baltimore
The writer is an intern for Environment Maryland.
Bikers need lane into downtown
I, too, am a recreational cyclist living in Baltimore ("Charm City still challenges cyclists," letters, June 28).
I consider myself fairly street savvy, and I have no problem riding north into the Greenspring Valley on the roads. However, riding from my home to my office in downtown Baltimore is a different story.
All we bikers need is one road with a big bike lane to get access to downtown.
