More than 60 people were killed since early September, when the U.S. military began attacking boats that the Trump administration alleges were smuggling drugs.
Use interdiction, not murder
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration and based on my own personal experience as a former Federal Prosecutor in the Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Division at DOJ, violent drug organizations often use human trafficking as a way to increase profits. They use the same trafficking routes and methods for drugs, sex and humans. Traffickers sometimes force migrants to pilot boats and use women and children who are also often victims of sex trafficking. Traffickers use drug addiction to control their slave like workers, to force long work hours and compliance and minimize escape attempts. Drug trafficking is inextricably linked with human and sex trafficking, often with mixed-use vessels and vehicles. This is a law enforcement issue, not a war.
Trump’s inhumane extrajudicial killings of unknown individuals in vessels near Venezuela violate U.S. and international law. How many innocent minors, victims of human and sex trafficking and people forced to drive vessels have been murdered? Their names and stories we will never know. God help us.
Pat DeConcini
Midtown
A real success story
I was disappointed by the incomplete picture presented in the recent article on the University of Arizona School of Art minor. The real story is one of success. The program is thriving so much that demand now exceeds capacity. That is not a failure. It is an extraordinary achievement that any university would welcome.
Think of it like a sold-out concert. When tickets are gone, it is not because the doors were closed. It is because people bought every seat. That is what is happening here. Students want to participate, and that demand is a clear indicator of success.
Arizona Arts was created to engage students across campus in the arts, recognizing that some cannot major in the arts but still want meaningful involvement. This minor offers that opportunity, and its popularity proves we have reached students who might otherwise have been left out.
Rather than calling this a limitation, let us celebrate what it represents. Our next step is to expand capacity.
Dean, Arizona Arts,
Hasan Elahi
Midtown
TDS cause discovered
Despite anti-science policy and defunding of research, the cause of TDS has been discovered. (Drumroll, please ...)
The cause is the extreme mental derangement of Donald Trump, POTUS. TDS causes angst and stress to anyone with an ounce of morality and integrity. Every day, Trump treats us to some new show of depravity, just when you think he can't go any lower. Somehow, he manages. His recent remarks after the murder of celebrity actor/director Rob Reiner and his wife shows us just how sick Trump clearly is. Nothing seems despicable enough to faze his cult followers. They voted for and adore a hateful, revengeful, nasty bully and his depraved remarks. Sad commentary on this country. Trump used a tragic murder, inserted himself, spewed his nastiness, made it all about him. How unpresidential and embarrassing. He succeeded in getting his nausea-inducing face on the screen yet again - his rabid need for attention is bottomless. No wonder Trump Exhaustion Syndrome has set in for many.
Deb Klumpp
Oro Valley
Where is DOGE savings?
What has become of the DOGE efforts to save money? When the U.S. government authorizes Hellfire missiles, to strike alleged drug smuggling vessels, it can cost as much as $150,000 plus significant operational overhead. These operations are estimated to run about $18 million per day.
A typical Coast Guard drug interdiction off our shores, with surface cutters and sharpshooters, cost approximately $50,000. This approach is considerably less — and more importantly, is set into action only when the boats are identified and actually close to reaching our shores. The current approach looks like outrageous bombings in open waters, nowhere near our coastline.
Emily Morrison
Midtown
Who is really responsible?
There is an ongoing effort to crucify President Trump and his Administration regarding ICE action, Department of Education elimination, and many other activities. Interestingly, there was no need for aggressive ICE actions five years ago because illegal immigration was limited, primarily to illegals who wanted to work.
The Biden Administration opened the floodgates, inviting 10-plus million immigrants to enter the country with little or no vetting and willfully ignoring existing and long-standing law.
Unfortunately, a significant number of those entrants were criminals, many violent, and took advantage of the Administration’s laxity. Currently, the Trump Administration is tasked with cleaning up the mess that the previous Administration facilitated.
Similarly, the Department of Education was spending $24 billion a year to have our students test grades embarrassingly poor compared to similar countries. An abysmal failure demanding a major change in an attempt to correct this travesty. These two examples of failures to act responsibly and the resulting corrective actions rest solely in the laps of liberal Democrats.
Loyal M. Johnson Jr.
Oro Valley
POTUS and the ACA
It took President Obama about 14 months (427 days) from his inauguration to sign the Affordable Care Act (ACA) (Obamacare) into law on March 23, 2010, following a year-long legislative battle involving intense debate, numerous hearings, and complex negotiations, ultimately passing Congress without any Republican votes.
47 has consistently attacked the Affordable Care Act (ACA) since its inception through legislative efforts, executive actions, legal challenges and public statements.
The administration has had 10 years to create an alternative individual health coverage market independent of the ACA. Project 2025 directly addresses the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with extensive proposals aimed at dismantling its key provisions and consumer protections, including:
— Weakening protections for pre-existing conditions
— Eliminating financial assistance improvements
— Dismantling the Medicaid expansion
— Promoting non-ACA-compliant plans
— Restricting reproductive health coverage
— And allowing discrimination
Our Commander-In-Chief's new White House ballroom project cost estimate has escalated from $200 million to $400 million. Americans now know his priorities.
Max LaPlante
Southeast side
Just following orders
On March 13, 1944, German U-boat commander Heinz-Wilhelm Eck ordered his crew to machine-gun the survivors of the SS Peleus. We caught them and, after a fair trial, executed them on November 30, 1945. Their claim that they “were just following orders” is exactly what every Nazi we ever put on trial said. It did not work then, and it does not work now. It is well past time for an entire chain of command to lawyer up.
Jon Young
Midtown
Trump Kennedy Center
Trump renaming the Kennedy Center is shameful and inappropriate. What a slap in the face of America. After President Kennedy's assassination, his widow, Jacqueline Kennedy, was instrumental in the creation of the Kennedy Center, serving as an honorary chair for fundraising, championing the project as a living memorial, and even commissioning the opening night performance after her husband's death. She saw the need for a national arts center and actively promoted it, ensuring it became a reality to honor JFK’s legacy.
Shameful.
Mary Beth Schneider
East side
A river's water is a finite asset
Thank you, Star, for printing Rusty Childress' op/ed piece about the Colorado River and overpopulation (Dec. 19). What a perfect explanation of how ignoring the earth's limits has gotten us into big trouble! And it didn't start just a few years ago. I agree totally that we must abandon the idea that growth is a good thing. Maybe we need a refresher course in American history. Reading Wallace Stegner's book, "Beyond the Hundredth Meridian" would be a good place to start.
Aston Bloom
East side
Re: Math lesson
I watched the President’s news conference with nine major pharmaceutical companies announcing ‘Most Favored Nation’ drug pricing agreements that will dramatically reduce the cost of medicine to Americans, leading to much lower health insurance costs.
LTE contributor Don Reis apparently saw this same telecast and chose to focus on what is the percentage decrease of a pill that currently costs Americans $10 and will soon be two or three dollars.
He and I both heard that the blockbuster blood thinner Eliquis will now be available for free to Medicaid patients so I ask him factor the number zero into his statistical mathematics.
Jeffrey McConnell
West side
Has he no shame?
The plaques recently put on the walls of the "People's House" by POTUS are pitiful, and the renaming of the Kennedy Center, insulting. Has he no shame? The shame is what he is doing to the country, to the American people. I believe we will long regret the day that we let him and his family organization rule the country.
Don Gerlach
East side
Grijalva’s ignorance
Unbelievable. Front page on Sunday, Dec. 21, article about A. Grijalva calling for a “review” of a 97-year-old individual? How pathetic a person she is. Obviously, the individual is not of her nationality. Does she want this person sentenced to life in prison?
How embarrassing to Arizona that this person is now in Congress.
L.W. Johnson
Foothills
Fireworks suck for humans, too
Not just dogs.
I know we're all super excited and proud to end the year in a full-blown fascist dictatorship where any of us could be kidnapped, beaten and disappeared without due process by masked & heavily armed racist goon squads, but maybe it's a good time to embrace a less explosive way of celebrating New Year's Eve — one that doesn't involve turning our neighborhoods into bloody war zones.
Just a thought.
C.D. Paiz
South side
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