I cannot believe what Paul Gentile is recommending our credit unions do relative to serving illegal immigrants in his Feb. 21 column. First, these people have violated the immigration laws of this country and it bothers me that we have legislators, congressman, etc., that absolutely do not understand the meaning of "illegal." This is further reinforced by the numbers of elected leaders, both on the state and federal levels, who have been and are now being prosecuted for violating the very laws that they passed. Apparently, the solution to resolve these illegal acts is to pass more laws that are not going to be enforced either.

Now, Gentile is recommending that our credit unions along with other financial institutions ignore the federal laws that require us to report interest and dividend earnings paid to their members (customers) to the IRS every year. This cannot be done without having proper Social Security or Tax Identification numbers. Employers of illegal immigrants have recently been found guilty of withholding taxes from these employees' pay and then not forwarding it to the IRS or Social Security Administration.

They would also be in violation of the labor laws if they did not withhold these taxes. It will be interesting to see how our financial institutions serving illegal immigrants handle the reporting requirements for savings and loans for those people. Is Gentile suggesting that we just ignore the IRS also as a bunch of unenforceable laws? I am not ready to sign up to that. Bob Burt Board Member Ascend Federal Credit Union Tullahoma, Tenn.