“JUIVE” was rubber-stamped across my mother’s identity card by the French police in 1942. This and the required wearing of the Jewish yellow star were preludes to rounding up Jews for deportation.

Her husband was sent to Drancy and then to Auschwitz, where he was killed. My mother escaped — barely — with my 4-year-old brother, first to Vichy then to Nice and finally to Rome. After liberation, she and my brother were among fewer than 1,000 refugees allowed into the United States on a temporary basis.

They were kept behind barriers at Fort Ontario in Oswego. Their favorite song was “Don’t fence me in.” I was born in the camp and my mother was told I would be allowed to stay in the United States as a citizen even if she and my brother were sent back to Europe. Truman ultimately allowed all these refugees to remain in the United States.

I recount this in the context of Donald Trump’s call for barring Muslims. What will be rubber-stamped on their passports? What other restrictions will be imposed?

Paul Feingold, retired

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The editorial in the New York Teacher on immigration [“A gorgeous mosaic,” Jan. 7] makes it appear that racial issues are a historic problem only in the United States. Actually, most societies have had to deal with racial dilemmas.

We should not allow Syrian refugees to come here since our federal government admits it can’t investigate all the refugees for terrorist ties. We need to secure our borders.

David Hammer, retired