Undergraduate and graduate students, professors and St. Louis community members gathered for a brief “speak-out” with the objective of making Washington University a sanctuary campus Wednesday afternoon in the Danforth University Center.

Immigration is a hotly debated topic among people who like to pretend they didn’t come to this country as immigrants in the first place.

NBC’s Chuck Todd filled Graham Chapel with people and occasional chuckles while talking about what people can expect from the 2012 election: a close race.

One Washington University student said he is descended from a Macedonian mail-order bride. Another said his ancestors barely avoided immigrating to the states on the Titanic. The stories were elicited as part of associate professor Shanti Parikh’s lecture on Tuesday titled “Love, Sex, and Immigration: Regulating Population and Reproduction.

Mr. Markel (“Decapitation: coming soon to a city near you,” Sept. 3) attempts to defend the anti-immigration law in Arizona by mentioning several horrific events. However, all of them occur in Mexico, and there is no evidence that violence is spilling across the border.