Immigrant workers - DACA supported by a Savannah opinion writer

MaineWriter- In fact....immigrant (refugee) French Haitian plantation owners who fled from a slave uprising, were integral to Savannah's development as a Southern city. The immigrants sought asylum and when they fled from a successful anti-slavery and anti-colonial insurrection by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign nation of Haiti. It began on 22 August 1791. Now, Savannah has integrated immigrants into the economy and the culture.

Opinion letter to SavanahNow, news from Georgia:

Immigrant workers vital to Savannah

Savannah is a tourists’ dream destination. Being able to stroll through the Historic District (cocktail in hand) and sample the award-winning local cuisine makes this the perfect weekend escape. I should know. I’ve spent seven years in the hospitality industry, and visitors are constantly raving to me about our famed city and its charm.

But national immigration policies are threatening tourism in places like Savannah — which benefited from nearly $3 billion tourist dollars last year — because the White House is making cities like ours less welcoming to the people who serve these visitors on a daily basis: Dreamers like me who account for a significant portion of the hospitality workforce. From what I’ve seen, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of openings in these fields. We could fill these open jobs — if only Congress would act.

Sept. 5 was the one-year anniversary of the Trump administration ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and so far Congress has failed us. Now, four lawsuits are arguing over the issue; last month, a federal judge in D.C. ruled that no new DACA applications had to be accepted. Soon enough, my fate and that of 800,000 Dreamers will likely be in the hands of the Supreme Court.

If the law doesn’t fall in our favor, that would be bad news for Savannah. According to New American Economy, three of the top 10 industries employing Dreamers are hospitality-related, including food services, accommodations and maintenance. That’s almost 185,000 tourism workers that cities like ours would lose should the Trump administration be allowed to strip DACA recipients of their right to work legally.

Without immigrants, there’d be fewer people to make the beds and set out those tiny bottles of shampoo. And Dreamers like myself provide more than physical labor. Over 80 percent of us have at least some college. Since I graduated from Armstrong State University, I’ve been promoted up the ladder to my current position as sales manager and now use my bilingual language skills to lead Spanish-language training programs.

I want award-winning publications to keep promoting our beautiful city as a must-visit destination. I want couples to continue hosting destination weddings at our venues. And I want Hollywood to film more movies like Baywatch here. Our status as a destination city could be at stake if we don’t protect the immigrant workers who help make it all possible.

Mariana Reyes, Savannah

Missouri Echo ~ among the most read opinion letters of the week

An opinion letter published in the St. Louis Post Dispatch among the most read "letters to the editor" during July 17th week. 

Republicans ignore real issues that face our country

The Republicans in Congress are flabbergasted that Peter Strzok could do his job without letting his self-interest and opinions affect it. This group cannot begin to understand just doing your job and keeping politics and self-interest out of it.

What would it look like if just for one week the Congress could actually listen to the American people and do their job? We could fix DACA, fix health care, pass bills for infrastructure and make laws to stop dangerous people from getting guns. These are all things that Americans want.

Instead, the Republicans follow every whim of a president who is busy ranting about immigrants and people failing to stand for the national anthem while ignoring the real issues that face our country and constantly divide us.

Marla Stewart • Old Monroe

Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski speaks with NPR Scott Simon

This week, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops criticized the Trump administration's cruel immigration policies. NPR's Scott Simon asks Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski for his reaction.

News from the Florida Council of Catholic Bishops: Mission:

Serve as liaison to state government on matters of concern to the Catholic Church in the seven dioceses of the Province of Miami, as a nonpartisan public policy voice on behalf of the Catholic Bishops of Florida

Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami FL

June 20, 2018 Marks the 18th Anniversary of World Refugee Day
June 15
Under U.S. law, a refugee is a person who is forced to flee his or her home country due to persecution or a well-founded fear of being persecuted on account of his or her nationality, race, religion, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. Worldwide, there are 65.3 million people who have been forced out of their homes.

Congress Hears from Constituents on National Call-in Day to Protect Dreamers

March 2
On Monday, February 26, more than 45,000 calls were made to members of Congress from Catholics around the country urging them to find a legislative solution to save the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. 

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops asked all Catholics to contact their members of Congress and urge them to protect Dreamers from deportation, provide them a path to citizenship and avoid any damage to existing protections for families and unaccompanied minors in the process.

Immigration: Cruel ICE.gov ~ Newsday echo opinion

Newsday ~ a New York newspaper ~ an echo opinion, exposes some of the lies swirling about the Trump administration's immigration (aka "anti-immigration) policy.  Meanwhile, the asylum seekers are experiencing cruel receptions by ICE.gov.

Central American migrants cross into the United States at Tijuana, Mexico, on May 4. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials continued to receive asylum requests from mothers and children of a migrant caravan. Photo Credit: EPA-EFE/Rex/Shutterstock/Joebeth Terriquez

Editorial: For weeks, the fierce national focus on immigration has been dominated by tales of *lost!* children, accompanied by childish political manipulations.

As Congress nears its summer recess and members position themselves for primaries and the November general election, attempts to pass legislation have become frantic. 

But the bills in the House of Representatives push in opposite directions to satisfy drastically different constituencies. 

Meanwhile, the Senate is poised to do nothing, and both parties and President Donald Trump are muddying the waters with squabbles and cynical lies.

The *failed Donald Trump* administration recently has been assailed with two terrible accusations about how it has *mis* handled minors coming into the USA. The claim that the Department of Health and Human Services is separating children as young as 4 from their parents is true.

The federal government admits it lost track of 1,475 children last year, but that’s neither ominous nor a cause for blame, as critics have claimed. In testimony before a Senate subcommittee last month, the Department of Health and Human Services explained the difficulty in checking up on the more than 7,000 unaccompanied minors it had placed with sponsors between last October and the end of last year. The agency made one call in each case to the contact phone number supplied and left a message when no one answered. Of those attempts, 1,475 elicited no response. This is not out of the ordinary. The sponsors and other members of the families these minors are placed with often have questionable legal residency themselves, and they might fear contact with authorities.

What’s more, a call from the government can be the precursor to a minor immigrant’s asylum hearing, which can lead to deportation. Many minors and sponsors are more comfortable slipping into the shadows than responding to such calls. But when news of the “missing” kids broke recently, it sparked a Twitter hashtag, #whereareourchildren, based on the belief that children in federal custody cannot be found.

Nevertheless, there is a tragedy going on involving such children because of the new rules Trump put in place.

Last month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a policy to separate children and parents caught entering the country illegally. It’s purposely cruel because it is primarily designed to deter anyone from trying to come here without permission, including those seeking asylum, which cannot be applied for from outside the country. The rule is also based on a false analogy. Sessions argues that anyone arrested and incarcerated in any situation is separated from his or her children. But it’s not a crime to cross into the United States when seeking asylum.
Stunned by the backlash against children being separated from parents and placed in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Trump and other officials claimed the separations are demanded by an Obama-era law, which is false. There is no law calling for such separations, just the *failed Donald Trump* administration’s own new “zero tolerance” policy.

It is against this hyperemotional backdrop that Congress is failing to settle the two baseline immigration disputes: increased border security, with or without a wall, and the fate of the 800,000 “Dreamers” brought here illegally by their parents who have no residency status and no other home.

Some Democrats want citizenship for the “Dreamers,” and no wall on our Southern border. Some Republicans want a huge wall and nothing for the “Dreamers.” But in an unusual twist, House centrists in both parties want to defy their wings and come up with a different approach. To do so, they are trying to use an obscure parliamentary procedure to force floor votes on several immigration options by banding together to overrule Speaker Paul Ryan.

Ryan will meet with his members Wednesday to try to re-establish order, but that may not be possible. Even if a bill were to pass, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he doesn’t see anything moving in his chamber, and the president is all over the map about what he would sign. That means the House fuss is about passing a bill to bolster election hopes, not changing the law to solve problems. And because any resolution is unlikely, East End farmers can’t get needed laborers and New York tech companies can’t get experienced talent.

A compromise is needed to satisfy demands for border security and for permanent status for “Dreamers.” (Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals aka -DACA), It must also maintain our US history of kind treatment of asylum-seekers, and of all people. Disseminating inflammatory lies may serve a purpose for certain politicians, on both sides of the aisle.

But it does not serve the nation.
By The Newsday Editorial Board

Young immigrants and Donald Trump ~ What Would Jesus Do?

Echo opinion from Tulsa World in Oklahoma ~ This particular echo was originally published post the terrible Donald Trump weird and cruel Easter twitter rant but as Christians are celebrating the Easter Season and on the eve of Eastern Rite Easter, the opinion letter is even more timely. 

Editorial writer Ginnie Graham: Trump's (un-Christian) Easter message against DACA recipients mean-spirited

Eastern Rite Christians ~ a religious tradition of peace

Before heading out to Easter services, Donald Trump took a few moments to threaten 800,000 young immigrants and grouse about his political opponents.

Just what Jesus would do.

“Border Patrol Agents are not allowed to properly do their job at the Border because of ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws like Catch & Release. Getting more dangerous. ‘Caravans’ coming. Republicans must go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws NOW. NO MORE DACA DEAL!” ~ Tweeted the un-Christian Trumpzi

There is a lot to unpack in that randomly capitalized statement, but the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals ~ in other words, young immigrants) is the reference that stuck.

Trump was mean.

Many immigrant children and youth live in religiously devout families and were also celebrating the holiest of Christian holidays. To have this darken a day meant for families and faith was unnecessary.

If he believed such a sentiment needed to be tweeted, waiting a day would have shown some mercy, restraint and moral empathy.

DACA refers to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a policy that protects young undocumented immigrants from deportation. It’s been a political lightening rod.


At times on Easter, my thoughts wandered to the DACA kids I’ve come to know through the years. Many I met while they were in high school or college and are now moving into young adulthood.


A majority can’t remember their arrival in the U.S. because they were babies, toddlers or preschoolers. Some didn’t know they were undocumented until they reached driving age.

Those who can remember often tell harrowing tales of survival.

They have grown up as any other American kid: Going to school, playing sports, joining the band, dating and calling Tulsa (Oklahoma) home. They have attended college and have career plans.

Since 2001, Congress has had a chance to take up the pending Dream Act, which would provide an avenue for these youth to apply for legal residency and possible later citizenship.

It’s not an amnesty. Only a narrow group would qualify, based on the eligibility standards.

DACA was a temporary bandage to push that along. The Obama administration memorandums establishing the program only staved off deportation; it didn’t provide residency, only a legal limbo.

Still, these kids clung to that as hope that they would one day be recognized as full Americans. 

They signed up and trusted that the government would find its way to a better immigration system. It’s their only option.

Trump announced DACA’s end last September, but federal judges in New York and California issued injunctions until lawsuits over its continuation are resolved.

Immigration reform is the never-ending stalemate in Congress. It’s clearly frustrating the president, as it did the previous two presidents.

Right now, the DACA kids are caught in the middle. That’s not right.

While I worried for these young Oklahoma residents that day, they didn’t let it dampen their moods.

“I had a great Easter with my family,” said Jordan Mazariegos, past president of Dream Act Oklahoma and a DACA recipient.

“His tweet can be an indication of new policy but, quite honestly to me, he says one thing one day and another thing on another day. It’s in the courts now, and that’s the decision I’m waiting on.”

Trump’s immigration tirade didn’t end there. He issued tweets later claiming Mexicans were “pouring in” to take advantage of DACA and blamed Democrats for the immigration reform failure.


The statements are misleading, at best, and ignorant at worst.


• The “catch and release” policies have been around since at least the George W. Bush administration. It refers to border patrol agents releasing apprehended low-risk immigrants near the border with an expectation they will appear later in court. Trump signed a cruel executive order in January 2017 to end it, but Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in October that the practice was continuing.

• The reference to “caravans” refers to about 1,500 Central American immigrants traveling together in Mexico as a power-in-numbers strategy in the violent regions. Accounts vary on whether any intend to cross the U.S. border. A story about this aired on the Fox Network’s “Fox & Friends” show Easter morning, which likely prompted the president’s thought.

• New immigrants do not qualify for DACA. That can only be used by youth who arrived before age 16, have lived continuously in the U.S. since June 2007, have a spotless record and are working, attending school or serving in the military.

• DACA was terminated by Trump, not Congress.

• Democrats have been part of Dreamer-related legislation, including at least two proposals in the Senate with bipartisan support, which failed to get 60 votes needed to move forward.

“I never thought I’d ever say that I can’t take the president of the United States seriously, but he keeps going back and forth,” Mazariegos told me. “He needs to stop.”

The U.S. desperately needs immigration reform, and reasonable people need to find common ground. But on this day, when the president was on his way to his own worship service, this was out of line.

Sacred holidays of major faiths ought to be reserved for messages of goodwill and peace.

What would Jesus do?  Check out the Beatitudes as taught during the Sermon on the Mount.  "Blessed are the peacemakers...."

Arizona opinion: Dreamers are US ~ Senator Flake alert

Arizona Opinion 

Viktor and Amalija Knavs are the parents of Melania Trump. 

They now have Green Cards, lawful permanent US residency.
Echo from the Arizona Republic from opinion writer E.J. Montini ~ a writer who speaks truth to conservative Arizonans.  Good job!

Columnist EJ Montini says Donald Trump should not use the DACA, immigrant dreamers as a bargaining chip to get funding for his (stupid!) border wall.

Here's what Arizonans and Republicans need to understand about DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) ~ and a criticism of Senator Jeff Flake's useless call for a "three for three" compromise.

Before Sen. Jeff Flake leaves Congress he wants to make sure the "dreamers" get to stay in America.

Congressional efforts to protect the DACA immigrants has been a long, difficult, disheartening, ugly process. And it’s not anywhere close to being finished.

Flake is a thoughtful man. And perhaps an ambitious one, not closing the door on a run for president in 2020.

And while he has been critical of President Donald Trump, he is uncomfortable being rude.

DACA immigrants are more American than dreamers?

Being polite is a Senator Flake trademark, but he should, nevertheless, ask Donald Trump ~ for example (as Montini would):

Who is more American, the 800,000 or so dreamers who were brought to our country as children and grew up here … or Melania Trump’s two parents?

A rude question or a valid one?

The young people living under the protection of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program instituted under President Obama are standing at the edge of the deportation cliff.

The president promises to push them off if he doesn’t get the $25 billion he wants for his (stupid!) border wall.

Not long ago, the dreamers got a bit of a reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court. But their situation remains unresolved.

Meantime, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, the parents of Melania Trump, have retired from their native Slovenia and are living in the U.S. They have green cards and could soon become citizens, most likely based on the family reunification process that President Trump derisively (and incorrectly) calls “chain migration.”
Benefits of 'chain migration'

It’s a program he wants to end -- now that the in-laws~ Viktor Knavs and Amalija Knavs~ are here, safe and sound.

Meantime, to save the dreamers, Sen. Flake is offering another compromise.

In an essay for The Washington Post he wrote:

“I can’t see this Congress agreeing with Donald Trump on a package that includes a path to citizenship for DACA participants coupled with significant changes to our legal immigration structure. That comprehensive immigration reform has proved to be beyond our grasp. That is why,...I will...introduce a bill extending DACA protections for three years and providing $7.6 billion to fully fund the first three years of the administration’s border-security proposal. I’ll be the first to admit this ‘three for three’ approach is far from a perfect solution, but it would provide a temporary fix by beginning the process of improving border security and ensuring DACA recipients will not face potential deportation.”

(Ugh!....Senator Flake, this is a useless and costly compromise.  DACA immigrants need permanent residency!)

Trump demands for a DACA deal

In addition to demanding $25 billion for his wall, Trump is demanding changes in immigration policy, one of which would eliminate the process that likely has the First Lady’s parents living here.

Trump’s plan would only allow spouses and minor children to be sponsored for legal U.S. residency. He has claimed that the current system allows an immigrant to “bring in virtually unlimited numbers of distant relatives.” That’s not true. At all. It’s a much more complicated and lengthy process.

Dreamers versus in-laws

Still, Trump has decided to demonize relatives sponsored by immigrants, when those relatives most often are just like Viktor and Amalija Knavs, the First Lady’s parents.

Trump's in-laws get to live here in safety and comfort after having spent their lives up to retirement in Slovenia.

Meantime, the dreamers grew up here, were educated here, work here and know no other country.

So maybe it wouldn’t be rude at all to ask the president who is more American:

Dreamers or Melania’s mom and dad?

(Keep up the good work ~ thank you E.J. Montini.)

Senator John Cornyn ~ request from a Texas constituent to protect Dreamers

Let the Dreamers~ the DACA immigrants~ stay in the US with a path to American citizenship. An echo opinion, letter to the editor, published in the Fort Worth Star Telegram, Texas.

Senator John Cornyn R-Texas

FORT WORTH, Tx- Sen. John Cornyn, Republican of Texas,, has been a strong supporter of the Dreamers, the American immigrants who were brought to the US as children. Moreover, he has also supported an acceptable solution to Donald Trump’s abrupt and cruel cancellation of DACA. 

Senator Cornyn knows that the Dreamers are hard workers; some are students; all are nonviolent; all are working toward a better future for themselves and our country. From education to research to the service industries, they contribute a great deal to our daily life

With the arbitrary DACA deadline Trump imposed, Cornyn nust stand up to Republicans and keep his word. He must fight for these people who know no other country and have no place to “go back to.”

Call Sen. Cornyn’s office and tell him how the lives of around 700,000 peaceful American people, who work and contribute to our economic well being,  are in his hands. ~ Judy Alter, Fort Worth

DREAMERS are Americans - Echo from San Antonio Express News

Dreamers are *Americans* just like us ~ (MaineWriter: They deserve safety and protection from deportation.)

Re: “Senators back ‘Dreamers bill’~ Echo letter to the editor published in the San Antonio News @mySA

It’s true Dreamers are undocumented, but the larger truth, the whole truth, is that Dreamers are undocumented Americans.

Dreamers are people like us, people who have grown up in America. They talk like us; they walk like us; they act like us; they think like us. We are one and the same.

Dreamers, culturally, are Americans, and they dream of staying in America, their home, sweet home. To deport them would be turning our backs on our own — inhumane and fundamentally un-American. Make the law and justice one.

Document the Dreamers!

Darrel Young, Hunt

Pelosi reminds Trump: 'Dreamers' are Americans too

An estimated 800,000 people who were brought to the United States illegally as children — are Americans too.

Care for the elderly and immigrant care givers

Published in The San Juan Daily Star, Puerto Rico newspaper:

If Immigrants Are Pushed Out, Who Will Care for the Elderly?

(MaineWriter - fear is the overriding concept in this article by Paula Span. Fear expressed by clients who are worried about losing their care givers when they need them most and likewise the fear felt by undocumented immigrants who face deportation.)

In Dallas, a 93-year-old is worried about the woman who, for years, has come to her house four days a week to help with shopping, laundry, housecleaning and driving. 

Metropolitan Jewish Health System

“She’s just a wonderful person, someone I feel I can trust completely,” said the older woman. But, because her helper is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, both women increasingly fear that she’ll be detained and deported. (I’m withholding their names for that reason.) 

“If this woman gets pulled over today, who will help my mother tomorrow?” said her daughter, an attorney in Oakland, Calif. In Brooklyn, Mary DiGangi, the human resources director at the Menorah Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing Care, recently asked local employment agencies to find 20 to 25 new nursing assistants and practical nurses. 

It’s a typical request, and usually, she said, “I’m flooded with applications the next day.” This time, she saw only five applications over a month. She thinks the Trump administration’s immigration policies and rhetoric have discouraged potential workers. 

Menorah, part of MJHS Health System  (Metropolitan Jewish Health System), draws heavily on immigrants for its 3,500 employees. Among them are 25 Haitian-American nursing assistants and practical nurses whose temporary protected status was terminated in November. They will have to leave by July 2019, unless the Secretary of Homeland Security changes her mind. Other Menorah staffers brought to this country as children, now DACA recipients, also remain in limbo. 

“Employees have told me they know it’s going to be OK,” Ms. DiGangi said. “I’m not sure if they’re convincing me or themselves.” One in four of the direct-care workers in the nation’s nursing homes, assisted living facilities and home care agencies are foreign-born, according to an analysis of census data by P.H.I., the New York research organization. In the so-called gray market, where consumers hire home care workers directly and often pay them under the table, the proportion is likely far higher. “We’re seeing a growing work force shortage in direct care,” said Robert Espinoza, vice president of policy for P.H.I. “It’s affecting the entire industry, and it’s affecting older and disabled people and their families.” The shortage stems partly from a growing economy, said Robyn Stone, a veteran researcher at Leading Age, whose nonprofi t members include long-term care providers. 

When employers are hiring, she explained, “these folks are likely to look down the street at a hospital that pays more, or another industry like fast food, and leave.” Mostly, however, what drives the labor shortage is long-term demographic change. Older people are living longer, most developing chronic diseases and disabilities; the sheer numbers of baby boomers further increases the demand for assistance. But the population of working-age women, who typically provide care both paid and unpaid, has shrunk — and they have more career options than they once did. So providing care for older people, in their homes or in facilities, has become the classic example of a job native-born Americans would rather not take. It’s physically demanding work that pays poorly — the median wage for home care workers was $10.49 an hour in 2016, P.H.I. reports — and usually doesn’t include benefi ts. The aides, mostly women, who serve in this crucial but low-income role frequently qualify for federal programs like food stamps or Medicaid. Their advocates have long argued for ways to improve these jobs, with more training and higher pay. 

For now, though, what P.H.I. calls the “care-giving gap” has been filled by immigrants. The number of immigrants in direct care ballooned from 520,000 in 2005 to approximately one million in 2015, including those who work independently through state home care programs, P.H.I. estimates. In New York, California, New Jersey and Florida, more than 40 percent of direct-care workers are immigrants. If large numbers of immigrants become unable to work or fearful of attracting unwanted attention, “this is going to create tremendous strain,” Dr. Stone said. Already, “we’ve heard of nursing homes that have shut down, or stopped admissions, because they could not hire enough people.” 

Excluding the gray market, the majority of aides and nursing assistants are American citizens. But P.H.I. has calculated that nearly 35,000 come from Haiti, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras, whose immigrants have had temporary protected status in the United States. The administration has so far terminated T.P.S. status for Haitians, Salvadorans and Nicaraguans; other nationalities may follow. Immigrants from Sudan, whose T.P.S. status was also terminated, will have to leave the United States as early as this fall. Another nearly 11,000 direct care workers come from largely Muslim countries aff ected by the Trump travel ban and might leave if family members can never join them. An unknown number of workers are DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients who might eventually be forced to leave. Even when workers are legal residents, though, they may consider moving when relatives are deported. Whole neighborhoods and communities feel targeted. “Just the scrutiny is casting a pall,” Dr. Stone said. “If they’re afraid, if they won’t apply for jobs, we could see more shortages.” As that happens, the eff ects ripple through nursing facilities and home care agencies. “When we struggle to fi ll positions, the people already working here are working harder,” Ms. DiGangi pointed out. They may take more shifts, or become responsible for more patients. Eventually, especially in rural areas where home care workers have to travel long distances to clients, older adults (and younger ones with disabilities) may not be able to hire people who can help them remain in their homes. In cities and suburbs, older immigrants who want assistance from those who speak their native language could be similarly at a loss. In the San Fernando Valley in Southern California, a home care worker named Norma, who fled El Salvador with her family almost 20 years ago, assists her 91-year-old disabled neighbor under a state program. She works every day from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., helping her client bathe, dress, eat, and circle the block in a wheelchair. Both Spanish speakers, the women have drawn close. “In the morning, when I arrive at the house, she brightens and says, ‘Norma, you’re here!’” Norma told me through an interpreter. 

But the Donald Trump administration has terminated Salvadorans’ temporary protected status as of September 2019. “I feel scared,” Norma said. “There’s so much unknown.” While she worries for herself and her husband — and her two daughters, who are DACA recipients — she also fears for her client. 

“If one day I don’t show up to work, nobody will be there to get her out of bed and change her,” she said. “This could be my own mom, who would be alone one day if nobody came to help.”

Dreamers - immigration opinion published in Tulsa OK "Tulsa World"

Oklahoma Seantor Lankford showed courage on immigration 

"Echo" letter to the editor of Tulsa World from Blanca Zavala*, of Tulsa

Senator James Lankford

Donald Trump’s rescinding of DACA has left the Dreamers — the 800,000 young men and women brought to the United States while they were children — in a horrible limbo, not knowing whether Congress will come to their rescue and save them from possible deportation and being ripped from their families.

Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford last September introduced the SUCCEED Act, a bill that while not perfect did provide protections that would have allowed most if not all of these bright young people a chance to remain legally in the only country they know as “home.”

Although his original bill does not appear to be among those likely to be voted on as legislators seek a final resolution for the Dreamers, Lankford must be commended for having the courage to put his name out front on an issue that has driven other members of both parties into positions so far apart as to make a solution at times seem unattainable. For a senator from the reddest of the red states this cannot have been an easy path to take.

It is our hope that Lankford will continue to recognize — as he has already demonstrated — the will of the majority of Americans and move forward in the spirit of wisdom and compassion by supporting legislation that will finally give the Dreamers the opportunity and legitimacy they deserve.

*Editor’s note: Zavala is president of The Coalition for the American Dream. Five other members also signed the letter.

Republicans are irresponsible to create their own extremist agenda

Filmmaker, actor, producer, husband, and father.

Rob Reiner is an active Twitterzin and this particilar Tweet sums up the Republican point of view ~ for reasons unknown to humankind, the Grand Old Party has decided to ignore the will of the people:

"90% of Americans are in favor of extending the CHIP program. 90% of Americans are in favor of DACA. 90% of Americans are in favor of universal background checks. Here’s a novel idea: Congress, try representing Americans."

It's irresponsible for Republicans to go against the will of the American people just because they prefer greed over democracy, they support gun rights over Free Speech, they want to deport all immigrants even though they are all (to a person) descendants of immigrants, they are "pro-life", oppose abortions but don't want to provide health care for children.

As Republicans are responsible for closing down the US government because they prefer extremism over compromise, the American people are the ones who are paying the bills for their their political incompetence.

It's time to throw out all the Republicans in Congress and hire, instead, leaders who care about Americans first and put their extremist opinions aside for the benefit of improving our human condition. Republicans are irresponsibly supporting an extremist agenda and their political platform is void of inspired leadership.

Republicans are obviously afraid of immigrants

Republicans build fear in people. Why do they fear immigrants?

800,000 young people are at risk of being deported

Fear is the political glue used by Republicans to hold their base together.  Fear about science, the media, global warming and Muslims are paralyzing the brains of Republicans. Many even believe it's against the moral fiber of Republicans to think independently. 

Anti-immigration policies supported by Republicans demonstrate how the party is also fearful of people who are trying to live law abiding lives in America, as immigrants.  

Obviously, Republicans are afraid of immigrants.

• Gerrymandering election districts has marginalized the voting rights of communities where minority and immigrant groups live.
• Republicans support massive deportations of law abiding immigrants.
• Republicans support the Donald Trump plan to ban immigrants from predominantly Muslim nations.
• Republicans support taking immigrant protection status away from "Dreamers", those children given resident status and potential path to citizenship for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

In fact, Republicans are also trying to dissuade people in Puerto Rico  (American citizens) from voting, as they are fleeing their homes that were ravaged by hurricane Maria. In fact, Puerto Ricans are registering to vote after relocated in Florida and Texas (by choice) and Republicans are fearful about how the Puerto Rico voters will tip the balance to Democrat in gerrymandered voting districts.

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said Thursday he will seek to mobilize Latino voters ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, citing the GOP's tax overhaul passed this week.

Rosselló, a Democrat and member of the island's New Progressive Party, argued on MSNBC that the Republican tax plan hurts Puerto Rico's economy.

It's obvious that the Republican fear campaigns are harming the innocent people who are hard working and law abiding immigrants.

Apparently, Republicans don't want immigrants to become American citizens when they have voting rights. But, smart Republicans should embrace immigrants in an effort to create a stronger voting base.  It was the Republican Ronald Reagan who courted Hispanic voters when he extended them immigration amnesty.

Rather than fear immigrants, Republicans should reflect on their own immigrant histories.  Every single one of them has a family immigration story.  They must respect their inherited heritage.

Rather than fear immigrants, Republicans must embrace the power of the diversity and the talents they bring to America. 

Immigrants will "make America even greater again!"

Immigration lawyer explains consequences of terrible policies- Echo op-ed

Donald Trump is the son of a Scottish immigrant. 

Mary Anne MacLeod Trump (1912-2000) is the mother of Donald Trump. She was a Scottish immigrant

Mary Anne MacLeod Trump was born in Scotland. 

In memory of his mother, Donald Trump should be completely compassionate toward all immigrants. Donald Trump's two out of three wives are also immigrants. In other words, Donald Trump's children are the progeny of immigrants. Therefore, the Trump administration's adversarial relationship with immigrants is cruel and makes no practical sense. 

In fact, the draconian immigration and deportation policies being enforced by US immigration are preventing badly needed labor and creative talent from entering America. 

There's no doubt that America will ultimately pay a cost for the Trump immigration policy. This opinion is an echo from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette:

America is not first in welcoming talent anymore

The Trump administration already is building walls to keep out immigrants — immigrants who could help build our country ~ opinion by Robert S. Whitehill

Robert S. Whitehill is an attorney based in Pittsburgh who chairs the Immigration Group of Fox Rothschild LLP, a national law firm (rwhitehill@foxrothschild.com).
What a way to start a new year.

President Donald Trump is building walls. There’s a travel ban on people entering the United States from certain countries. Temporary Protected Status is being withdrawn for Haitians, Sudanese and Nicaraguans. U.S. admissions of refugees are at record lows, notwithstanding a record high number of refugees worldwide.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) has been withdrawn for hundreds of thousands of young people whose only infraction has been entering the country as children, usually brought by their parents, without inspection or proper papers.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is exercising little prosecutorial discretion and going after even those who have committed trivial violations of immigration or criminal law. Immigration judges are being pushed by the Department of Justice to move cases through in assembly-line fashion.

U.S. and Indian media outlets are reporting that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is considering measures that could send back to India (and elsewhere) a half-million tech workers.

Let’s be frank. The United States is not the welcoming place it once was, and some people are just not coming anymore. Businesses are leaving the country or setting up operations elsewhere so they can hire and retain the professional talent they need without the frustration and expense of trying to climb over the Trump administration’s obstacles.

The number of foreign students in the United States has fallen by about 7 percent year over year. Fewer foreign students translate into fewer educated, globally attuned potential employees. There also are thousands of foreign nationals graduating each year who then cannot stay in the country even when have both a degree and a job offer. The wall blocking H-1B visas — time-limited work or study permits — keeps rising higher.

To qualify for an H-1B visa, a foreign national must be offered a position requiring at least a bachelor’s degree. The person must be fully qualified and credentialed. The employer must offer and be able to pay the prevailing wage, as determined by the Department of Labor.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has made a concerted and successful effort to make entry-level H-1B’s more difficult to obtain. 

For example, one of my clients, a major university, was seeking an H-1B visa for a post-doctoral fellow. 

USCIS required the university to provide evidence that a position requiring a doctorate also required at least a bachelor’s degree. (!)

That seemed laughable, but it cost the university time, money and frustration. There are many such examples, as approximately 40 percent of the fiscal-year-2018 H-1B petitions have been subjected to requests for evidence — some serious, some frivolous.

Moreover, USCIS has announced that it no longer will recognize previously adjudicated judgments regarding extension petitions for H-1B and other types of visas. This means many more requests for evidence can be expected, translating into time and money spent and work undone.

Because of all this, there is greater reluctance to engage or continue to engage foreign nationals in positions requiring college degrees, even when no Americans qualify or are willing to take them. America will not benefit from much-needed workers, including highly educated aliens with extraordinary abilities and executives, managers, entrepreneurs and others with specialized experience. Even multinational firms are having a harder time transferring workers into the country.

USCIS also has greatly increased the frequency of fraud-detection audits to make sure that foreign nationals lucky enough to have obtained visas are doing the work identified in their approved applications. It now requires in-person interviews of virtually everyone seeking permanent residency in the United States. Fraud detection is fine, but USCIS hasn’t increased its staff to handle this work. This adds to the already-long processing times, which, in turn, further discourages companies from hiring foreign nationals and foreign nationals from staying.

The Trump administration is seeking to sharply reduce not only illegal but also legal immigration and to revoke Obama administration policies. Almost every step it takes in this direction results in vigorously contested lawsuits fought to protect the rights of immigrants.

When DHS sought to delay implementation of International Entrepreneur Rule (IER) — which permits foreign entrepreneurs to invest in enterprises in the United States and employ U.S. workers — a request for an injunction was filed in federal court. The judge ordered DHS to get the program moving as required by federal regulation. As it begrudgingly did so last month, DHS stated that, while it “complies with the court order and implements the IER parole program, DHS is also in the final stages of publishing a notice of proposed rulemaking seeking to remove the IER. “

Mr. Trump might be having no luck getting congressional approval to build his physical wall along the Mexican border, but his administration is building plenty of less-visible walls to keep out immigrants — particularly immigrants who could and do contribute to America’s strength and vitality. These construction projects are being countered by legal action and advocacy, decision by decision. Unfortunately, this unceasing battle is making our country less attractive to many of the world’s best and brightest, whose energy and talents are welcome elsewhere.

(MaineWriter~ it's just  matter of time, ultimately, the US will pay for this terrible and exclusionary immigration policy.)

Republicans empty vote promises

“The problem is what we’ve seen so far for Congress, it seems, is not in the attempt to reach a deal [but] to make a statement rather than make a law. And these kids (DACA) are going to be timed out here soon. And so we’ve got to actually get serious with it.”~ Senator Jeff Flake (About the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals ~ DACA)

As disappointed and, frankly, angry, as I am about how the Republicans rammed through a 500 page "tax cuts for the rich" bill without allowing the Senate to read it, my disdain continues for those who were sold a "pig in a poke" to barter for their support.  Surely, seasoned Senators like Susan Collins and Jeff Flake knew better than to believe that the empty promises thrown at them in exchange for their vote to support the bad economic reform was just whistling in the wind, by Mitch McConnell.

The Daily Beast reports: by Andrew Desiderio

SO MUCH FOR THAT
House Republicans Already Shooting Down Tax Bill’s Promises
Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) got assurances for their votes. Someone forgot to clear it with conservatives in the other chamber.

House conservatives are already indicating that they're prepared to block some of the key legislative promises that Senate Republicans demanded in exchange for their votes on tax reform legislation.

Republicans are whistling in the wind- right wing partisans won't hear them- when they believe Senator McConnell's empty promises in exchange for their votes.

Those promises materialized in the frantic final hours of the tax debate last week, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) gave Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) assurances that some of their personal legislative priorities would be dealt with in exchange for their votes.

Senator Collins said she received a promise that the Senate would consider two bipartisan pieces of legislation that would ostensibly mitigate the negative effects that could come from the tax bill’s repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate. Flake said he received a “firm commitment from Senate Leadership and the administration” to work on a permanent protections for the soon-to-be-ended Obama-era program that shields children of undocumented immigrants.

Both senators ended up voting for the tax bill, giving it the 51 “yes” votes it needed to pass. Within days, however, reality began setting in that those promises might have been flimsy at best.

Moving the Collins and Flake deals through the House was always going to be an uphill climb, with a conservative bloc sharply opposed to both measures, having dubbed DACA a de facto form of amnesty and arguing that the health insurance market stabilization bills that Collins supports are tantamount to a bailout for health insurers and what they view as a broken system. On Monday, those conservatives railed against McConnell for making promises on legislation that they have long opposed.

“We still have the same issues. Nothing has changed in the last two months just because we’re fulfilling our promise on delivering on tax reform,” Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.), the chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, told The Daily Beast. “I find it problematic to be promising something that the House has shunned from very early on.”

Lawmakers made it clear that they felt no reason to support the proposed deals, and blamed Senate leaders for trying to wheel and deal their way to a successful result on reforming the tax code and slashing rates, an issue they believe all Republicans should have been united around from the start.

“I think this is exactly what the American people are sick of: learning about trading votes to modify the healthcare system and one fifth of the economy in exchange for a tax vote,” Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA), a member of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, told The Daily Beast. “So it seems like it would be wiser for Republicans to actually follow what is in the Republican platform and not what is in the Democratic platform.”

GOP leadership has long had difficulty corralling its conservative members on even its own agenda. And on Monday, aides scoffed at the idea that leadership would be able to sell them on swallowing what the Senate’s more moderate lawmakers produced in their tax bill—let alone really try.

“McConnell is asking for us to vote for these unpalatable things to do tax reform,” a conservative House GOP aide told The Daily Beast. “We have someone who’s taking a hostage, we have to negotiate with them, and, oh, they happen to be from the same party.”

The aide was granted anonymity to candidly discuss House conservatives’ longstanding frustrations with the Senate and with McConnell throughout the Trump presidency, in particular the upper chamber’s failure to repeal and replace Obamacare.

The likelihood that the House declines to follow through on either the Collins or Flake measures may not, in the end, complicate tax reform at all. The Senate has already passed its tax bill and the House could simply pass the Senate’s bill—meaning that even if the senators raise objections, the bill would still be able to pass.

That was the risk each senator took by giving up their votes before firmly securing their legislative promises.

Collins had been extremely skeptical of the Senate bill because it included a repeal of the Obamacare individual mandate—something that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says would result in 13 million more Americans uninsured over the next 10 years. She demanded that Congress pass two bills in exchange: one crafted by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Patty Murray (D-WA) that aims to lower premiums in 2018; the other co-authored by Collins and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) and would provide a federal reinsurance pool worth $4.5 billion.

Flake, meanwhile, is one of a few Republicans who supports a bipartisan version of the DREAM Act that was introduced by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). But while Durbin, the Senate Minority Whip, has said he’s willing to block any spending bill that does not codify DREAMer protections before the end of the year, Republican leaders in both the House and Senate have said they don’t plan to deal with the issue by the end of the year. The White House, meanwhile, has stressed that they only promised Flake a seat at the table, not a final legislative outcome.

On Monday, Flake downplayed the significance of the administration’s commitment to work with DACA, which was given when Trump first announced he was rescinding the program in September with a six-month phase-out. Instead, the Arizona senator described it as an affirmation of Congress’ role in the process.

“Both the vice president and the president have said they want to work with me on it. That wasn’t my condition to vote for the bill. It wasn’t. It was a secondary thing. But I’m glad I got it,” Flake told The Daily Beast in an interview. “The problem is what we’ve seen so far for Congress, it seems, is not in the attempt to reach a deal [but] to make a statement rather than make a law. And these kids are going to be timed out here soon. And so we’ve got to actually get serious with it.”

Flake has been one of Trump’s sharpest critics. When he announced in October that he wasn’t seeking re-election in 2018, he took to the Senate floorto cast Trump as a “reckless” threat to democracy.

On DACA, though, the senator appears to have faith in Trump.

“I’ve said before I think this is one area the president has said some good things about wanting to do it. I think his instincts on DACA, at least, are probably better than some of the advice that he’s gotten on this,” Flake added.

Sexual misconduct as racism

Many right wing and Republican motivated Christians are conflicted about the sin of sexual misconduct. Apparently, in the minds of the self righteous, it isn't necessarily a sin when a white polemicist is engaged in sexual sins, like stalking underage girls in shopping malls. Yet, in recent southern racism history, a Black man risked being lynched by vigilantes or the Ku Klux Klan, for even looking at a Caucasian woman.

Roy Moore is accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women 

Now, Christians are wrongly defending Roy Moore's sexual misconduct because he is "one of them". They've put morality aside and claim that electing him to the US Senate, to represent Alabama, will support the Republican's agenda.  

As a matter of fact, the Republicans' political agenda is "anti-Christian". It's not Christian to do harm to immigrants, to deport children who are protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or block health care for children by refusing to vote to re-authorize the CHIPS. (Medicaid and CHIP offered free or low-cost health insurance for kids and teens. Children could access regular check-ups, immunizations, doctor and dentist visits, hospital care, mental health services, prescriptions and more.)

Nevertheless, right wing Christians and Kay Ivey, the Governor of Alabama, continue to support Roy Moore during his relentless campaign to be a US Senator. 

The New York Times reports:
Roy Moore Is Mired in a Sexual Misconduct Scandal. Here’s How It Happened.

That Roy S. Moore, the Republican candidate for Senate in Alabama, would cruise to victory seemed almost a foregone conclusion. Now, after a series of women have come forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct, very little is certain in a race that could have major implications for the party’s ability to govern in Washington.

Yet, Senate Republicans have distanced themselves from Mr. Moore, a former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, and they are openly discussing the prospect of expelling him from the chamber if he wins the election. Democrats, for their part, are contemplating the near impossible: flipping a seat in a deeply red state that last elected a Democratic senator in 1990.

As voters prepare for the Dec. 12 Alabama special election — in which Mr. Moore will be on the ballot come what may — here is a breakdown of The Times’s coverage on the race since the accusations emerged.

What are the allegations?

The Washington Post reported that four women said Mr. Moore had pursued them sexually or romantically when they were 18 or younger and he was in his 30s, and one of them said that he touched her sexually when she was 14, below the age of consent.

Mr. Moore, 70, remains defiant, trying to discredit the accusers while denying the most serious charges against him and insisting that the women are part of a conspiracy to stop him from putting God at the center of American politics. Moreover, he refused to answer questions about the allegations.

Alabama G.O.P. Says It Stands Behind Roy Moore NOV. 16, 2017

In my opinion, the root of this Alabama political debate about a man who is clearly unqualified to be a US Senator is the obvious situation of his white race. For some reason, the media won't report about what is obvious. There's no doubt whatsoever in my mind that Roy Moore would already be in jail if he happened to be a Black man.  

Voting against Roy Moore is the best way for Alabamians to oppose the state's racist past and demonstrate a truly Christian response to the December 12 election.