To the Journal editor:

I read the Jan. 20 letter to the editor on where U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet, is laying (the recent) shutdown now on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi? (I seem to recall Mr. Trump saying he’ll own this shutdown, he’ll be proud to shutdown the country, if he couldn’t get the funds for this wall!)

And I didn’t see the representative make any mention of the July 2017 State Department Report on Terrorism in this report. It came out breaking down perceived threats by country. This report doesn’t fit into Trumps’ story of the danger from the south. It said there are no known international terrorist organizations operating in Mexico, and no evidence that any terrorist group has targeted U.S. citizens in Mexican territory, and no credible information that any member of a terrorist group that has traveled through Mexico to gain access to the U.S.

The report finds that Canada is worse than Mexico where there have been more episodes of terrorism noted in Canada. So, as the representative said he wanted to point out the facts, perhaps he should take the time and read this report. We are all rightfully concerned about national security, as Islamic extremists have made there way across the border into the U.S. but, through our northern border and not the southern as this report had stated.

And finally, the worst act of terrorism in U.S. history happened by terrorist gaining access via the Airports and 15 of the 19 were our “friends” who were Saudi, and not Mexicans.

DAVID KUMPULA

Hoffman Estates, Illinois