Letters: A moderate Republican's thoughts on the immigrant crackdown
The Tribune's story ('Immigration crackdown felt in Chicago's suburbs,' July 27) about a 17-year employee being fired by Nestle Corp. for not having proof of citizenship and Tribune coverage of many law-abiding contributors to our society being arrested and deported for noncitizen status are reporting on an abomination.
Many states recognize common-law marriage in which a couple living as husband and wife for a lengthy period of time confers legal marital status. There are states that confer ownership of property after many years of a steward ably working the land. As a country, we recognize statutes of limitations dictate whether criminal charges can be brought after a lengthy period of time. Why is it so hard to apply some intellectual honesty and informed judgment for noncitizens who behave responsibly and demonstrate a work ethic that is indicative of the American Dream?
Undocumented immigrants who work hard to provide for and raise their families should not be treated worse than we treat actual criminals. I am a moderate Republican who is disgusted with the hypocrisy and 'one-size-fits-all' of the Trump administration. Congress and Trump should not be surprised when I and my like-minded friends and family hold our collective noses and vote for whoever is running against the Republicans in future elections.Kudos to the always-erudite Jonathan Zimmerman for extolling the virtues of intellectual and viewpoint diversity ('Why higher education needs diversity in viewpoints,' July 25) at the country's so-called institutions of higher learning, including Ivy League universities such as Harvard (and, while unmentioned, his own University of Pennsylvania) while still decrying the Donald Trump administration's efforts to prod institutions in that direction.
The professor may be correct in saying that the government cannot constitutionally compel universities to promote such diversity of thought, but I think he misses two important practical points.
The first is that private universities in particular — such as Harvard and Penn — also have no constitutional claim to the federal tax dollars on which they have long relied in shockingly massive amounts to support an essentially medieval guild system, the increasing cost of which for decades has far exceeded the rate of inflation of most other goods and services. And he who pays the piper calls the tune, just as the Barack Obama administration did with its infamous 'dear colleague' Title IX letter some years back.
The second is that without the Trump administration's overly aggressive prodding, American institutions of higher education would have had no incentive to change their one-sided ideological bias at the teaching and research levels.
The leftist bias of faculties and administrators is well documented, and Zimmerman cites striking examples, but let me add one. Some years ago, when Peter Salovey was announced as the incoming president of Yale University, I asked him at a reception in Chicago what he would do as president to increase political and philosophical diversity among the Yale faculty. Salovey's response was essentially that he would do nothing; it was not his fault that all the intelligent people were on the left.
Trump is in many ways a bull in a china shop. But perhaps his greatest contribution in his second term as president may be forcing people in all sectors of society to confront important issues in education, immigration and citizenship that have for far too long operated on autopilot with little concern for the ultimate consequences.
Certainly, Zimmerman shows signs that point in that direction.On a recent Tuesday at 7:05 p.m., I received a call from my representative in the U.S. House, Darin LaHood. I was getting ready to go into a meeting but answered the call. A recording invited me to hold on to be transferred into a town hall meeting, where I could have my questions answered, but I had my meeting commitment.
The next day, I tried to send a message to LaHood through his website, but after entering everything, I found out it was not functioning. The next day, the congressman posted on his Facebook page that one of the most important parts of his job is hearing directly from his constituents and that he had 52,000 people on that call!
I'm sure LaHood is getting ready to run for either the Senate or governor since he now posts almost daily on Facebook with very safe pieces about how in touch he is, but a robocall town hall with 52,000 people doesn't even come close to counting.
I have so many questions about why he and the rest of the Republican Congress have almost totally abdicated to the president their responsibility to govern, what his thoughts are on several key issues and if he is personally OK with an increasing number of the president's actions. If he runs for higher office, he won't be able to hide in his safely gerrymandered district and will have to let us know where he actually stands on some real issues that a significant percentage of us believe are going in a very wrong direction.My thoughts are with Northwestern University, my alma mater and former employer, and all the current employees affected by these cuts. I can't help but ask: 'For what?'
The horrific acts of Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, to slaughter so many innocents in Israel initiated worldwide debate and demonstrations. As the response from Israel made many ask about the equally horrific impact and death of innocents in Gaza, those debates and demonstrations heightened, particularly on college campuses globally.
Certainly, there were excesses of speech and actions on both sides of the debate and demonstrations for a period of time. However, how are the actions of the Donald Trump administration, under the guise of addressing antisemitism on U.S. college campuses, in any way in equal measure to those excesses? Slashing billions in university funding because of the use of free speech, no matter how uncomfortable? When overwhelmingly these demonstrations were peaceful, even if they were loud and uncomfortable? Even when cases of violence and abuse at these demonstrations were addressed by law enforcement and campus administrators using principles of the rule of law and judicial process? And particular to NU, even when opposing parties, including the Jewish NU community, came to a mutually negotiated resolution to the demonstrations on campus?
The overreach of the Trump administration in this matter is too much. No one voted for this. This is wrong.I read that hundreds of government employees were diverted from their responsibilities to read the 100,000 pages of Jeffrey Epstein files four times, looking for red flags.
Wouldn't it have been more cost-effective to simply release them and let the public and journalists do that work for free?My family makes regular use of the Chicago Public Library, and I write with deep concern over the federal government's decision to eliminate funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). This action will have a direct and devastating impact on libraries across the country, including our own here in Rogers Park.
In fiscal year 2025, Illinois received $5.7 million through the IMLS Grants to States program, placing it among the top recipients nationally. These funds have a broad impact on statewide services, individual library grants, and library operations and programs.
In light of the government shutdown of IMLS, it's more important than ever to stand together for libraries and the vital role as public spaces — this especially in a time and climate in which isolation and fragmentation have done so much damage to community, decency and public goodwill.
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Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
It's Trump's economy now. The latest financial numbers offer some warning signs
WASHINGTON (AP) — For all of President Donald Trump's promises of an economic 'golden age,' a spate of weak indicators this week told a potentially worrisome story as the impacts of his policies are coming into focus. Job gains are dwindling. Inflation is ticking upward. Growth has slowed compared to last year. More than six months into his term, Trump's blitz of tariff hikes and his new tax and spending bill have remodeled America's trading, manufacturing, energy and tax systems to his own liking. He's eager to take credit for any wins that might occur and is hunting for someone else to blame if the financial situation starts to totter. But as of now, this is not the boom the Republican president promised, and his ability to blame his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, for any economic challenges has faded as the world economy hangs on his every word and social media post. When Friday's jobs report turned out to be decidedly bleak, Trump ignored the warnings in the data and fired the head of the agency that produces the monthly jobs figures. 'Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can't be manipulated for political purposes,' Trump said on Truth Social, without offering evidence for his claim. 'The Economy is BOOMING.' It's possible that the disappointing numbers are growing pains from the rapid transformation caused by Trump and that stronger growth will return — or they may be a preview of even more disruption to come. Trump's economic plans are a political gamble Trump's aggressive use of tariffs, executive actions, spending cuts and tax code changes carries significant political risk if he is unable to deliver middle-class prosperity. The effects of his new tariffs are still several months away from rippling through the economy, right as many Trump allies in Congress will be campaigning in the midterm elections. 'Considering how early we are in his term, Trump's had an unusually big impact on the economy already,' said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist at Firehouse Strategies. 'The full inflationary impact of the tariffs won't be felt until 2026. Unfortunately for Republicans, that's also an election year.' The White House portrayed the blitz of trade frameworks leading up to Thursday's tariff announcement as proof of his negotiating prowess. The European Union, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and other nations that the White House declined to name agreed that the U.S. could increase its tariffs on their goods without doing the same to American products. Trump simply set rates on other countries that lacked settlements. The costs of those tariffs — taxes paid on imports to the U.S. — will be most felt by many Americans in the form of higher prices, but to what extent remains uncertain. 'For the White House and their allies, a key part of managing the expectations and politics of the Trump economy is maintaining vigilance when it comes to public perceptions,' said Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist. Just 38% of adults approve of Trump's handling of the economy, according to a July poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs. That's down from the end of Trump's first term when half of adults approved of his economic leadership. The White House paints a rosier image, seeing the economy emerging from a period of uncertainty after Trump's restructuring and repeating the economic gains seen in his first term before the pandemic struck. 'President Trump is implementing the very same policy mix of deregulation, fairer trade, and pro-growth tax cuts at an even bigger scale – as these policies take effect, the best is yet to come,' White House spokesman Kush Desai said. Recent economic reports suggest trouble ahead The economic numbers over the past week show the difficulties that Trump might face if the numbers continue on their current path: — Friday's jobs report showed that U.S. employers have shed 37,000 manufacturing jobs since Trump's tariff launch in April, undermining prior White House claims of a factory revival. — Net hiring has plummeted over the past three months with job gains of just 73,000 in July, 14,000 in June and 19,000 in May — a combined 258,000 jobs lower than previously indicated. On average last year, the economy added 168,000 jobs a month. — A Thursday inflation report showed that prices have risen 2.6% over the year that ended in June, an increase in the personal consumption expenditures price index from 2.2% in April. Prices of heavily imported items, such as appliances, furniture, and toys and games, jumped from May to June. — On Wednesday, a report on gross domestic product — the broadest measure of the U.S. economy — showed that it grew at an annual rate of less than 1.3% during the first half of the year, down sharply from 2.8% growth last year. 'The economy's just kind of slogging forward,' said Guy Berger, senior fellow at the Burning Glass Institute, which studies employment trends. 'Yes, the unemployment rate's not going up, but we're adding very few jobs. The economy's been growing very slowly. It just looks like a 'meh' economy is continuing.' Trump's Fed attacks could unleash more inflation Trump has sought to pin the blame for any economic troubles on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, saying the Fed should cut its benchmark interest rates even though doing so could generate more inflation. Trump has publicly backed two Fed governors, Christoper Waller and Michelle Bowman, for voting for rate cuts at Wednesday's meeting. But their logic is not what the president wants to hear: They were worried, in part, about a slowing job market. But this is a major economic gamble being undertaken by Trump and those pushing for lower rates under the belief that mortgages will also become more affordable as a result and boost homebuying activity. His tariff policy has changed repeatedly over the last six months, with the latest import tax numbers serving as a substitute for what the president announced in April, which provoked a stock market sell-off. It might not be a simple one-time adjustment as some Fed board members and Trump administration officials argue. Trump didn't listen to the warnings on 'universal' tariffs Of course, Trump can't say no one warned him about the possible consequences of his economic policies. Biden, then the outgoing president, did just that in a speech last December at the Brookings Institution, saying the cost of the tariffs would eventually hit American workers and businesses. 'He seems determined to impose steep, universal tariffs on all imported goods brought into this country on the mistaken belief that foreign countries will bear the cost of those tariffs rather than the American consumer,' Biden said. 'I believe this approach is a major mistake.' Josh Boak And Christopher Rugber, The Associated Press Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Los Angeles Times
27 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
9th Circuit keeps freeze on Southern California ICE patrols
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dealt a stinging blow to the Trump administration's mass deportation project Friday night in a fiery opinion upholding a lower court's block on 'roving patrols' across much of Southern California. 'If, as Defendants suggest, they are not conducting stops that lack reasonable suspicion, they can hardly claim to be irreparably harmed by an injunction aimed at preventing a subset of stops not supported by reasonable suspicion,' the panel wrote. The ruling leaves in place a temporary restraining order barring masked and heavily armed agents from snatching people off the streets of Southern California without first establishing reasonable suspicion that they are in the U.S. illegally. Under the 4th Amendment, reasonable suspicion cannot be based solely on race, ethnicity, language, location or employment, either alone or in combination, U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong of Los Angeles wrote in her original order. 9th Circuit Judges Marsha S. Berzon, Jennifer Sung and Ronald M. Gould agreed. 'There is no predicate action that the individual plaintiffs would need to take, other than simply going about their lives, to potentially be subject to the challenged stops,' the opinion said. Fourth Amendment injunctions are hard to win, experts say. Plaintiffs must show not only that they were hurt, but that they are likely to be hurt again in the same way in the future. One way to meet that test in court is to show the injury is the product of a government policy. Throughout a hearing Monday, the appellate judges repeatedly probed that question, roughly doubling the administration's time to respond in an effort to get an answer. 'After the district court injunction here, the secretary of Homeland Security said, 'We are going to continue doing what we're doing' — so that's not a policy?' Berzon asked. 'The policy is to follow the 4th Amendment and to require reasonable suspicion,' said Deputy Assistant Atty. Gen. Yaakov Roth. Roth also rebuffed questions about a 3,000-arrests-per-day quota first touted by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller in May. In a memo to the panel on Wednesday, Roth clarified that 'no such goal' had been established. The court rejected that argument Friday, writing that 'no official statement or express policy is required' to prove one exists. 'Agents have conducted many stops in the Los Angeles area within a matter of weeks ... some repeatedly in the same location,' the opinion said, making the likelihood of future stops 'considerable.' The ruling scolded the Department of Justice for 'misreading' the restraining order it sought to block, and said it 'mischaracterized' Judge Frimpong's order. And it rejected the government's central claim that its law enforcement mandate would be 'chilled' by the district court's order. 'Defendants have failed to establish that they will be 'chilled' from their enforcement efforts at all, let alone in a manner that constitutes the 'irreparable injury' required to support a stay pending appeal,' the panel wrote. The case is still in its early phases, with hearings set for a preliminary injunction in September. But the 'shock and awe' campaign of chaotic public arrests that first gripped Southern California on June 6 has all but ceased in the seven counties covered by Frimpong's order: Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. 'The underlying 4th Amendment law is not complicated,' said Mohammad Tajsar of the ACLU of Southern California — part of a coalition of civil rights groups and individual attorneys challenging cases of three immigrants and two U.S. citizens swept up in chaotic arrests. 'Even a more conservative panel would have been concerned about what the government is doing.' Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, whose city was among a number of Southern California municipalities allowed to join the lawsuit this week, celebrated the news. 'Today is a victory for the rule of law and for the city of Los Angeles,' Bass said. 'Los Angeles will stand together against this administration's efforts to break up families who contribute every single day to the life, the culture and the economy of our great city.' The Trump administration has previously signaled its intent to fight judicial limits on its deportation efforts any way it can. It was not immediately clear where an appeal would proceed.
CNN
38 minutes ago
- CNN
Trump wants to talk business with Africa in hopes of countering China. But a US summit excluded Africa's big players
The White House hosted an 'African leaders' summit of sorts this week. But only five countries from the continent of more than 50 nations were welcome to join. US President Donald Trump hosted a working lunch in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, bringing together the presidents of Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Senegal, and Gabon for a discussion focused on 'commercial opportunities,' a White House official told CNN. 'This discussion and lunch dialog with African heads of state was arranged because President Trump believes that African countries offer incredible commercial opportunities which benefit both the American people and our African partners,' the White House official said. The multilateral lunch is scheduled for noon in the State Dining Room of the White House. Going into the meeting, Liberia said that the 'high-level summit' intends 'to deepen diplomatic ties, advance shared economic goals, and enhance security cooperation' between Washington and 'select African nations.' However, none of Africa's big players, such as its largest economies South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Ethiopia, were asked to attend. These nations are allied to BRICS, a group of emerging economies founded by Brazil, India, and America's adversaries, Russia and China. BRICS members face the threat of being hit with new tariffs from Trump for supporting 'anti-American' policies. During the meeting, the five African leaders heaped praise on Trump as they encouraged him to invest in their countries and develop their plentiful natural resources. The leaders joined the US president for lunch in the State Dining Room, where each leader went around the table thanking Trump for his invitation. 'I didn't know I'd be treated this nicely. This is great. We could do this all day long,' Trump said in response to the flattery. Christopher Afoke Isike, a professor of African politics and international relations at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, describes Trump's handpicked guests for his US summit as 'low-hanging fruit' in his quest to counter Chinese and Russian influence in Africa. 'On one hand, Trump is desperate for some deal to show to his base that he is getting results for America. But some of these also align with his focus on countering Chinese influence in Africa and malign Russian activity which undermines US interests on the continent,' he told CNN. 'Most of the regional powers in Africa are either in BRICS as key members or are aspiring to join as key partners,' Isike said, adding that 'these five countries (attending the US summit) do not fall into that category and as such are a kind of low-hanging fruit.' China is Africa's largest bilateral trading partner while its ally Russia has expanded its footprint on the continent, emerging as a major supplier of military hardware. This is not the first time Trump has hosted a small group of African leaders in the US, deviating from the approach of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, who hosted fuller gatherings of African heads of government while in the White House. During his first term in office — viewed by some as 'dismissive toward Africa' — Trump hosted a 'working lunch' in 2017 with nine African heads of state, whom he described as 'partners for promoting prosperity and peace on a range of economic, humanitarian, and security issues.' 'Africa has tremendous business potential,' Trump said in that meeting, which included the leaders of Nigeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa. Now in his second term, Trump has kept an eye on Africa's mineral wealth, with the US keen to challenge China's access to critical minerals in the region. However, he advocates a transactional policy that swaps charity for strategic US investment. When a peace deal brokered by Trump was signed last month by Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which harbors large deposits of minerals critical to the production of electronics, Trump told reporters that the accord allows the US to get 'a lot of the mineral rights from the Congo.' While the signed peace agreement does not specifically forfeit any mineral rights to the US, the document includes a framework 'to expand foreign trade and investment derived from regional critical mineral supply chains,' specifically to 'link both countries, in partnership, as appropriate, with the US government and US investors.' In a statement July 1, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hailed the end of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which delivered US humanitarian aid overseas, saying that 'the countries that benefit the most from our generosity usually fail to reciprocate' and that future US aid and investment 'must be in furtherance of an America First foreign policy.' The Trump administration had previously canceled more than 80% of programs at USAID and has imposed 'reciprocal' tariffs on several countries, including many in Africa which Trump said had trade deficits with the US. South Africa has described the 'reciprocal' tariff which is due to take effect on August 1 as not based on 'an accurate representation of available trade data.' Trump has also banned travel for 12 mostly African and Middle Eastern nations – citing security risks – amid an aggressive clampdown on immigration by his administration. A mooted expansion of the travel restrictions would halt travel to the US for swathes of West Africa, if implemented. China, meanwhile, is softening the impact of US tariffs on Africa, announcing last month it would halt charges on imports for nearly all its African partners, except Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) which is friendly toward Taiwan — which China's ruling Communist Party claims as its own, despite never having controlled it. Although small economies, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal and Liberia are rich in mineral resources including oil and gas, gold, iron ore, and rare earth elements. At the White House meeting, Gabon's President Brice Oligui Nguema underscored the mineral wealth of their countries and encouraged the US to partner with them to develop their resources. 'We are not poor countries. We are rich countries when it comes to raw materials. But we need partners to support us and help us develop those resources with win-win partnerships,' he said. Nguema also pushed Trump to purchase from Gabon rather than through companies. 'I'm sure that it's more expensive compared to when you can come and buy directly from us,' he said. Discussions at the Trump-hosted summit extended beyond commerce. Nguema addressed his country's efforts to curb piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. 'We can't do it alone. We need a reliable and strong partner that is committed and that takes real action,' he added. The West and Central African nations are also a common departure point for would-be migrants to the US. 'There may be other stakes: migratory trends from West Africa to Nicaragua and then the US,' as well as 'security, as all of those (five) countries have an opening on the Atlantic Ocean,' Ousmane Sene, who heads the Senegal-based research organization, the West African Research Center (WARC), told CNN. Last year, the New York Times reported, citing government data, that the US was seeing an increasing number of African migrants at its southern border — rising from just over 13,000 in 2022 to 58,462 in 2023. Nationals from Mauritania and Senegal were top of the list, the report said. For Dakar-based journalist and political analyst Mamadou Thior, who covered the first US–Africa Leaders' Summit hosted by Obama in 2014, the leaders of the five African nations must 'be as clever as Donald Trump' in talks with the White House. 'Trump is a businessman. So only the interests of America interest him,' Thior said. 'The USAID, which was a key partner for countries like Senegal, no longer exists. It's up to them to talk to Trump, to see what new cooperation they can put forward.' In Isike's view, 'this meeting is going to inaugurate a new US diplomatic model — one that is transactionally tied to economic reform (and) trade outcomes for the US.' Nonetheless, the five African nations 'can expect to leverage private sector partnerships, investment, infrastructural development, and security cooperation with the US,' he said. These nations are not new to high-stakes relations with global powers. They have each been courted by China, which has boosted trade volumes between them and funded infrastructure in Gabon and Senegal. When Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embaló met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing in September, the former had kind words for the host nation. 'For Africa,' Embaló said, according to a statement by Chinese foreign ministry, 'China represents the future and is a brother.' 'Guinea-Bissau is willing to be a trustworthy friend and partner of China,' he added. Last month, Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko was also full of praise for China, thanking it for awarding dozens 'of preparation scholarships' to his nation's athletes and coaches ahead of next year's Summer Youth Olympics. In the same statement, Sonko expressed frustration with the US decision to deny visas to 'several members of the Senegal women's national basketball team' — a leading force in African women's basketball — forcing them to cancel a training camp they had scheduled in the US. With a wider African leaders' summit mooted by the White House for later in the year, Trump has made one thing clear, according to Isike: an urgent shift 'from traditional aid to strategic commerce-driven engagement.' However, the shift is 'a high-stakes gamble that aligns with America's goal to reset its influence in Africa through investment but also to counter China and foster economically self-reliant African partners,' Isike added. 'Enabling Africa to be self-reliant is not because he (Trump) loves Africa, but because he doesn't have patience with countries that only want handouts from the US,' Isike said, adding that 'these trade deals and the meeting (this week) aligns with the US' priority to favor countries that are able to help themselves.' CNN's Alejandra Jaramillo contributed to this report.
