This country and the State of Maryland, like most of the states, are facing bankruptcy due to continued deficit spending. A large contributing factor to that deficit spending is the countless millions of dollars the U.S. taxpayers spend every year for government services for illegal immigrants. The operative word here is "illegal." Illegal immigrants are aliens (i.e. non-citizens) who has entered the United States without government permission or have stayed beyond the termination date of their visa. They have broken the laws of this country by their act of being here without government permission, hence their proper designation is "illegal."

In an editorial ("All the news that's fit to steal," March 8) you chastise the Baltimore County prosecutors for failing to prosecute Towson University students who broke the law. You opine "the law is the law" and those who broke the law should be held to the consequences the law provides for their unlawful actions. Yet on the very same day, on the very same editorial page, in your lead editorial, you proclaim that the state of Maryland should extend in-state college tuition rates to illegal immigrants. Your editorial, of course, doesn't even once refer to illegal immigrants as being "illegal." Rather, you characterize them as being "undocumented," and despite your admonition to Baltimore County prosecutors, you suggest that illegal immigrant status in Maryland should be rewarded.

Education is one of the major, if not the greatest, costs to taxpayers each year. Your editorial notes that the cost to Maryland taxpayers for each illegal immigrant for K-12 education is $200,000. Those costs could be eliminated, deficits reduced, and more tax dollars would be available for the education of legal citizens of this state by applying your admonition to the Baltimore County prosecutors. The law is the law, and advocating rewarding illegal immigrants, who have broken the laws of this country, is not just wrong, it is sending us into bankruptcy.

J. Shawn Alcarese, Joppa