Letters to the Editor: Two readers disagree over claims of racial profiling in ICE raids
To the editor: Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin denies that the agency is engaging in racial profiling, calling the claims 'disgusting and categorically FALSE' (''Scared to be brown': California residents fearful amid immigration raids,' June 25).
Oh, please. Then tell me why Immigration and Customs Enforcement is targeting Home Depot, farms, car washes and other places where there is a large Latino presence. I believe what I see, not the lies that this administration is telling us. What is disgusting is hearing of hardworking people being terrorized likely due to the color of their skin.
Holly Gordon, Fountain Valley
..
To the editor: My Latino gardener and housekeeper aren't scared whatsoever. Why? Because they came into the country legally and followed the rules of procedure to become either a U.S. citizen or obtain eligibility for a work permit. Therefore, it's just a matter of legality; by observing those rules, legal immigrants and U.S.-born Latinos would never have to fear ICE raids.
Eloise Hart, Brentwood
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
UPI
2 hours ago
- UPI
Haitians to lose TPS status in September
June 28 (UPI) -- The Department of Homeland Security is ending Temporary Protected Status for nearly 350,000 Haitians living in the United States as of Sept. 2. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the TPS status for Haiti ends on Aug. 3 and becomes effective 30 days later. "This decision restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures the Temporary Protected Status is actually temporary," DPS officials said on Friday in a news release. "The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home," the DHS release continues. DHS officials said Haitian citizens can use the department's mobile app to arrange their return to Haiti. Several natural disasters, including hurricanes, floods and earthquakes, have impacted Haiti over the past decade, including a magnitude 7.2 earthquake in 2021. While DHS officials say such environmental conditions are safe, the State Department since March 2024 has issued a travel advisory cautioning U.S. citizens against visiting Haiti due to crime, civil unrest and limited availability of healthcare services, The Washington Post reported. Noam acknowledged Haitian crime and civil unrest in a federal notice that was released on Friday. "Widespread gang violence in Haiti is sustained by the country's lack of functional government authority," Noem said in the federal notice. "This breakdown in governance directly impacts U.S. national interests, particularly in the context of uncontrolled migration," Noem added. She said it is time for the United States to prioritize its national security. Ending TPS protection affects and endangers more than 500,000 Haitian nationals who are living in the United States, House Haiti Caucus co-chair Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., said in a prepared statement on Saturday. She called it an "act of policy violence that could literally be a death sentence for Haitian nationals." "Haitians of all ages who have planted and grown roots in the United States over the past 15 years are now at risk of being removed from safe communities, taken from their families and having their lives uprooted," Pressley said. She called on the Trump administration to "reverse course" in the matter.
Newsweek
7 hours ago
- Newsweek
'Alligator Alcatraz' Faces Legal Challenge Days Before Opening
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Two environmental charities on Friday filed a lawsuit at a Miami federal court attempting to block the opening of a new migrant processing facility at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in the Florida Everglades, dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" by some Republicans. The suit was launched by Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity who argued the proposal violates the National Environmental Policy and Endangered Species acts. Newsweek contacted the Department of Homeland Security, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Center for Biological Diversity for comment via email on Saturday outside of regular office hours. Why It Matters Since assuming office in January, the second Trump administration has overseen a major crackdown aimed at removing illegal migrants from the United States, with intensified Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids across the country. Trump has vowed to deport upwards of 11 million people from the country and doing so would require a dramatic expansion in detention and deportation facilities. What To Know Friday's lawsuit was filed in the federal Southern District of Florida with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and acting ICE director Todd Lyons listed among the defendants. The new detention center is under construction at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, a training 39-square-mile site near Big Cypress National Preserve which has a 10,000 foot asphalt runway. Stock photograph showing an alligator moving through the Wakodahatchee Wetlands on March 13 2024 in Delray Beach, Florida. Stock photograph showing an alligator moving through the Wakodahatchee Wetlands on March 13 2024 in Delray Beach, Florida. Bruce Bennett/GETTY During an interview with Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy, that aired on Friday, DeSantis said the center should be ready to take its first detainees by Tuesday. Footage from the site showed portable restrooms and air conditioning systems underneath tent-like canopies. Florida authorities say the facility will take $450 million to build, with the cost to be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Friday's lawsuit argues the facility violates the Environmental Policy and Endangered Species acts and is calling for an expedited hearing to stop construction until an environmental hearing is complete. The Everglades is home to a number of threatened or endangered species including the Florida panther, American flamingos, manatees and American crocodiles. It also contains an estimated 200,000 alligators, hence the new facility's nickname. What People Are Saying Friends of the Everglades executive director Eve Samples told Newsweek: "This scheme is not only cruel, it threatens the Everglades ecosystem that state and federal taxpayers have spent billions to protect. "Friends of the Everglades was founded by Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 1969 to stop harmful development at this very location. Fifty-six years later, the threat has returned—and it poses another existential threat to the Everglades." The lawsuit states: "The facility and associated operations will use and impair the Big Cypress National Preserve by causing direct and indirect harm to its wetlands, wildlife and air and water quality. "These impacts will result in the degradation of the natural, scenic, hydrologic, floral and faunal and recreational values for which the preserve was created." Speaking to The Washington Post, DeSantis spokesperson Bryan Griffin said the governor looks "forward to litigating this case," adding he "has insisted that Florida will be a force multiplier for federal immigration enforcement, and this facility is a necessary staging operation for mass deportations located at a pre-existing airport that will have no impact on the surrounding environment." What Happens Next It remains to be seen whether the Southern District of Florida court will order a halt on operations at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport until an environmental review is completed. Such a move would infuriate Republicans with a large expansion in detention facilities required to hit Trump's deportation target.
Politico
8 hours ago
- Politico
DHS terminates temporary protected status for Haitians in the US
The Department of Homeland Security on Friday announced that it would terminate temporary protected status for Haiti, setting the groundwork for hundreds of thousands of Haitians to potentially be deported from the United States once the designation expires later this summer. The termination of temporary protected status — a designation that shields from deportation people who have traveled to the U.S. from countries that are deemed unsafe because of natural disasters, armed conflict or other extraordinary conditions — would put up to 500,000 Haitians at risk of deportation, as gang violence continues to roil the country. According to a DHS release, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem 'determined that conditions in Haiti no longer meet the TPS statutory requirements,' after concluding that conditions in the country have improved sufficiently for Haitians in the U.S. to return. The DHS plans to terminate the designation effective on Sept. 2. 'This decision restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures that Temporary Protective Status is actually temporary,' an unnamed DHS spokesperson said in the release. 'Haitian nationals may pursue lawful status through other immigration benefit requests, if eligible.' But while DHS said Haiti is 'safe for Haitian citizens to return home,' the country still remains at a 'level four' designation by the State Department, which has advised Americans not to travel there due to risk of 'kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and limited health care.' Haiti was also included in President Donald Trump's new travel ban. Trump has threatened mass deportation for Haitians since his presidential campaign, when he began attacking Haitian immigrants, zeroing in on migrants in Springfield, Ohio, that he said were 'destroying' the town's 'way of life.' Both Trump and Vice President JD Vance at the time boosted conspiracy theories about Haitians in Springfield eating a slew of local wildlife, including cats, dogs and geese, sparking outcry from Democrats. 'It's simply wrong,' then-President Joe Biden said of Trump and Vance's comments, adding that the Haitian American community was 'under attack.' The decision is the latest in the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration and follows a February move by the DHS rescinding temporary legal protections for Haitians in the U.S. that had been granted under the Biden administration, which cited at the time the dangerous conditions in Haiti that made their return unsafe. The Trump administration has also made similar moves terminating protections for Afghans, Venezuelans and Cameroonians in the country, and won a legal battle in the Supreme Court in May after justices cleared the way for the administration to immediately end deportation protections for roughly 350,000 Venezuelans in the U.S.
