Posted by J. F., a resident of the Kentfield neighborhood, on Nov 6, 2009 at 9:30 am

"I understand I'm illegal here, and the law is the law, and they have to do their job. But they don't have to treat us like criminals,"

Are you kidding me, she actually had the nerve to say that?

Posted by Jim Dinkin, a resident of the Corte Madera neighborhood, on Nov 6, 2009 at 10:57 am

I'd say "courage to say that." Americans should be ashamed at what's happened to that family.

Posted by anon, a resident of the Novato neighborhood, on Nov 6, 2009 at 11:46 am

I simple refuse to accept the nonsense statement that ANYONE is ripping this family apart EXCEPT the parents.

This point of view is total nonsense and a truly pathetic and transparent attempt to garner sympathy from the Luddites of the world.

If I went to another country with my children and that country said you must go home, but if you wish to leave your children you may. I would leave with my children as 100% of decent human beings on the planet would do. Is that even a question, except for the stupid?

Anyone who would abandon their children is a bad person. OF COURSE they will blame others, that is the nature of bad people.

Posted by MarinResident, a resident of the Mill Valley neighborhood, on Nov 6, 2009 at 3:21 pm

The Mejia's are not "abandoning their children" - one is pursuing an asylum request and the other is a teenager wanting to finish school.

What has happened to this family is criminal and tragic. Hopefully one day our immigration laws will be changed into something more humane and compassionate, i.e. more liberal.

So much hyper-judgementalism toward this poor family...so sad.

Posted by anon, a resident of the Novato neighborhood, on Nov 6, 2009 at 5:15 pm

Marin Resident-

You are right and the crime occurred the day the parents entered this country in violation of our laws.

I wonder why you are not so angry that Mexico does not allow citizens of Guatemala to live in Mexico.

Posted by MarinResident, a resident of the Mill Valley neighborhood, on Nov 6, 2009 at 8:19 pm

We are not talking about Mexico here, we are talking about the U.S.

Jim Dinkin, you are right on - we should be ashamed at what we did to this family.

Posted by anon, a resident of the Corte Madera neighborhood, on Nov 6, 2009 at 8:31 pm

Dear Marin Resident-

I am well aware that you are not talking about Mexico. I asked you why not?

Mexico does not allow this, nor do almost all the countries on earth. Why do you suggest it's a crime to do so here and why should we allow any person who wants to come here to do so.

Can you please use the word sustainability in your answer?

Posted by johnnymarin, a resident of the San Rafael neighborhood, on Nov 7, 2009 at 4:27 pm

Try sneaking into Japan or China and then go see if you can get on welfare. But, if you can tell a sad story (like the Mejia one) then your home free in this county. Who cares that they are illegal and broke the law. As long as they have a good story. Sorry, I'm not that soft. After all, Guatemala is a nice country to visit so it's must be a decent place to live in. A friend of mine is from there. He owns a home here and there and loves being in both places. If it was Haiti, I might feel more sorry for this family. But he's not so I don't. Now if he wants to come back the legal rout, then he's more than welcome. Just don't let him vote Democratic.

Posted by MarinResident, a resident of the Mill Valley neighborhood, on Nov 8, 2009 at 2:37 pm

Guatemala is one of the poorer countries of Central America. If your friend has homes there and here, then he is living way, way better than the majority of Guatemalans - DUH. A lot of expats live in C.A. because it is poor and therefore cheap to live in.

"Just don't let him vote Democratic." LOL - too funny, 'cause the racist GOP has basically lost most of the Hispanic vote these days. Their latest stunt of trashing and opposing Sonia Sotomayor is just example as to why that is so.

Subvierta el paradigma dominante!

Posted by anon, a resident of the Mill Valley neighborhood, on Nov 9, 2009 at 9:11 am

They're lucky their butts weren't kicked out of America a long time ago. This whole time THEY HAVE BEEN ILLEGAL.

These people should kiss the American flag and be thankful for all the coddling they've received.

End of story.

Posted by MarinResident, a resident of the Mill Valley neighborhood, on Nov 9, 2009 at 12:21 pm

Gee - what "coddling" are you talking about? Do you have direct knowledge of this? Just curious....

Subvierta el paradigma dominante!

Posted by anon, a resident of the Mill Valley neighborhood, on Nov 9, 2009 at 2:30 pm

[Portion removed due to disrespectful comment]

Okay, lets turn the tables around shall we?

You've been gung ho and on the bandwagon ever since this story came out. You've been pointing fingers at myself and all the other nasty people out here who make the case that, since these folks are ILLEGAL, felt they should be sent home. You had been appealing to all of us to open our hearts and find warmth and compassion for this family.

Yet, no where along the line have I seen you suggest that you would open up your doors to them, take them in, harbor them and help them out yourself until they get the help they need.

You've been all talk and no "do". You haven't suggested any action you would take on their behalf. But you have no trouble poo pooing those of us who offer pointers like helping them obtain their citizenship or my previous suggestion for you to escort them down to their local government office to obtain their citizenship.

All you've done is complain that we're not as open minded as you.

Well, you failed. I haven't seen proof of you doing one thing tangible to help these people other than complain.

So, stop complaining.

Posted by MarinResident, a resident of the Mill Valley neighborhood, on Nov 9, 2009 at 3:39 pm

Umm...why do you allow yourself to be driven nuts? There is help for that, you know.

The immigration LAWS should be changed; that is what I have been advocating for. They laws need to be more compassionate and humane.

And, I have been advocating that position with my lawmakers.

Posted by anon, a resident of the Mill Valley neighborhood, on Nov 11, 2009 at 11:46 am

Interesting Editor.

You completely removed MarinResident's ultra rude letter to me and then made a blatant attempt (portion removed due to disrepectful comment) to remove what I wrote when I was quoting MarinResident to begin with!

Unbelievable. So not only do you change what people write in, but you also erase other slanderous letters that people write so that the other letters look even worse.

You're re-writing letters and taking out letters to make other people look better. Good thing you're a freebie.

Posted by Editor, Pacific Sun Online, a resident of the San Rafael neighborhood, on Nov 11, 2009 at 3:19 pm

We encourage posters on our site to fully express their views and like to see a wide variety of views represented. It makes for a more interesting and stimulating discussion.

We do not want to host personal attacks on other posters, regardless of the views of the attacker. The guidelines for posters are spelled out in our terms of use. We want all posters to feel safe to express their opinions.

What is a personal attack sometimes falls in a gray area. In some cases we remove posts or portions of posts that constitute personal attacks or are racist or obscene, but leave the remainder. The other thread on this particular topic became so contaminated with multiple personal attacks in a short time that it was not very feasible to edit individual posts and still have the entire thread make sense, so, for the first time, we removed the entire thread.

Unfortunately, this particular topic seems to generate such strong opinions that posts slip into disrespectful personal attacks more than on other issues.

Posted by MarinResident, a resident of the Mill Valley neighborhood, on Nov 11, 2009 at 4:06 pm

Your actions are understandable, Editor.

Thanks for your effort to keep us civil.