Writing letters to Congress: If you want to get their attention, go old school.

In the 1939 Frank Capra film, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” letters from citizens to Congress play a pivotal role in the story — they symbolize the voices of young people crying out for honest representation and government for the greater good. The letters arrive in stark contrast to a media campaign manufactured by a corrupt political boss.

The letters scene in that old film, with Jimmy Stewart as freshman Senator Jefferson Smith, came to mind Sunday when I suggested that citizens write and mail letters to Republican members of Congress to protest ICE. Republican senators are needed to get Trump to call off his masked goons. An old-school letter campaign might push some to stand up for decency and the rule of law.

“Is email a viable alternative, or does an actual snail mail letter carry more weight?” asked a reader.

There’s a reason I suggested letters by post and not email, phone calls or messages in social media.

Personalized letters — written, printed, stuffed in envelopes, stamped and mailed — are more influential than emails or phone calls because they show more effort and, thus, a greater level of concern. Because email is so often used these days, actual letters or postcards stand out.

Emails can be effective, according to surveys that have been conducted of congressional staffers. But I believe baskets of letters by mail would be more impactful.

So give it a try.

My Sunday essay on Substack contains instructions for mailing your protest to Republican senators, and it lists 20 who might be amenable to getting Trump to call a time-out on the whole ICE thing and immigrant purge.

Correction: The cost of a Forever Stamp from the USPS is 78 cents, not 73 cents as reported earlier in the Substack piece. The son of the late Rose Popolo Rodricks regrets the error.