Courtesy of Bastrop Advertiser
May 8, 2020
Re: April 26 article, “Bastrop County sheriff’s policy leads to jump in immigrant arrests.” I appreciated the wellresearched article by Brandon Mulder in the American-Statesman April 26 about Bastrop County’s Sheriff Maurice Cook. Under the guise of reducing traffic deaths last year, sheriff’s deputies stopped and arrested mostly Hispanics for driver’s license or insurance offenses. Traffic deaths did not drop, but the number of people arrested and turned over to federal immigration authorities soared.
This campaign, directed by Cook, fits right in with Cook’s anti-immigrant political base.
I find this morally repugnant. Almost 20% of people working in our clinics and hospitals, and a large percentage of those working in our fields and processing plants come from another country. If Cook really wanted to reduce traffic deaths, he would go after speeders, not people who have fled terror in other countries and are trying to eke out a peaceful living here. We have a moral calling to send Cook and his ilk packing in November.
Mary Liz Singleton, Bastrop
