Those pesky laws
Prisoners wait handcuffed outside their cell at maximum security penitentiary CECOT (Center for the Compulsory Housing of Terrorism) on April 4, 2025 in Tecoluca, San Vicente, El Salvador. Amid internal legal dispute, Trump's administration continues with its controversial and fast-paced deportation policy to El Salvador, as part of a partnership with President Bukele. The US Government acknowledged mistakenly deporting a Maryland resident from El Salvador with protected status and is arguing against returning him to the US. (Alex Peña/Getty Images/TNS)
No, letter writer L. Hancock, we citizens have no reason to be ashamed. It is Tom Homan who should be ashamed for acting as if “obeying the law is optional.” Your words.
Homan is using expedited removal, but that only applies to those here less than 14 days, and criminals. As per NBC, 48% of deportees have no criminal record. Homan is ignoring the 14 days and the right to a hearing.
“Very simple,” as you say. Be “supportive of the laws,” instead of acting like Homan.
Christi Driggs
Northwest side
Don’t blame the athletes
College athletes can market their talents to the highest bidder in the sphere of team competition and change team jerseys at their discretion. Fans believe this evolution of sports, this money grab by athletes, has destroyed collegiate sports. I understand that perspective and frustration. It’s important to remember, however, that the influence of money and greed is not a recent development. Athletes have always been the main attraction and have been on the outside watching coaches, administrators, the NCAA, television networks, bowl games and others profit off their hard work in competition. In many instances the profits have been huge. Sure, they get a free education but why shouldn’t they receive a share of the revenue when, for instance, they see a store selling a jersey or shirt with their name or likeness driving those sales? It’s simply a business investment now for everyone involved. If you don’t like it, look elsewhere for your entertainment. Just don’t paint the athletes as the villains in this progression of college sports.
Kyle Vance
Northeast side
Repeat after me: Sun rises in the west
The sun rises in the west.
The sun rises in the west.
The sun rises in the west.
Do you believe it? No? Why, when many believe the repetition that the administration uses as its way of trying to make true a patent falsehood?
For example, the lie about widespread abuse in Social Security. “People who are 150 years old are … fraudulently collecting Social Security payments,” the vice president said in an interview last week.
He repeated the lie that the head of DOGE proffered in February. Social Security officials and the news media explained quickly why it was false.
That did not stop it. The president repeated the “150 years old” lie in his February speech to Congress. Last week, the vice president lied as quoted above on, of course, Fox & Friends.
It is a lie.
It is a lie.
It is a lie.
Do you still believe it?
Michael A. Chihak
West side
A sad day
Angelique Lizarde, KVOA News Anchor, is no longer with KVOA. It is a sad day that a woman who has reported news in Tucson for years is gone due to corporate “reorganization”. Watching the 5 o’clock news will simply not be the same. How sad for all of us admirers.
Jean Getek
Foothills
What Trump doesn’t know
Globalization, at its core, is not so different from ancient trade. What has changed is the speed, scale, and sophistication of trade. Now, digital platforms, container ships, and financial markets allow nations to trade in milliseconds across oceans. Data, like goods, have become a key commodity.
Early human tribes exchanged goods like food, tools, and materials. The Greek city-states traded olive oil, wine, and pottery across the Mediterranean, forging not only wealth but also networks of influence. The Roman Empire expanded this further, building roads and ports to support vast trade routes that stretched from Britain to Egypt to India. Goods like silk, spices, glassware, and precious metals flowed across continents, often changing hands multiple times on their journey. The rise of Islamic empires, the Silk Road, the Mongol Empire, and later, European colonial powers all contributed to expanding global trade.
Unfortunately for us, Trump’s reptilian brain cannot comprehend or understand modern trade or its benefits.
Lawrence Mazin
SaddleBrooke
Who is the real puppet?
In response to the “Free Speech” letter by Loyal M Johnson, I find the comparison between Biden and Trump’s press pool stunningly naïve. When Donald is not golfing, Trump holds press conferences that are long-winded, off-topic, incoherent, rambling diatribes. As for clear and direct answers? Has the writer listened to Trump’s speeches? Biden, on the other hand, may not have appeared often, but he did handle security briefings.
As for press secretaries, the writer can hardly compare Trump’s trophy wife of a MAGA donor, Karoline Leavitt, to Biden’s well-educated, knowledgeable, and articulate Jen Psaki and Karine Jean-Pierre.
Trump only addresses a press pool comprised of handpicked MAGA sycophants, prohibiting all others who Trump considers “bad,” unlike Biden, who allowed all journalists into the press pool. The multitude of journalists Trump permits into the White House press pool doesn’t include The Associated Press (banned) or Reuters (banned), but HAS included a reporter from TASS, the Kremlin mouthpiece. Who is the real puppet here?
Bobbi Zimmer
Midtown
Question for Ciscomani
Hey Juan, I was wondering if you think it’s all good that your deity Trump manipulated the stock markets with his tariff threats and then tipped off his buddies when he was going to back off on that so they could all reap huge profits in what is essentially insider trading? Do you think this is right, Juan? Just planning to sit on your hands on this travesty, Juan?
Personally, I don’t think it’s right, but I know you Trump acolytes have a very low standard of ethics.
Scott Lukomski
Northeast side
25th Amendment for Trump?
After Joe Biden’s disaster of a presidential debate last year, speaker Mike Johnson publicly commented that Democrats should consider using the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to relieve him of duty, due to his mental decline. Perhaps now the Republicans should consider this for Trump. He has exhibited a clear lack of mentality with some of what he has said and done. His stating that we should make Canada our 51st state, seize Greenland from Denmark (even by force if necessary), and of course his tariffs, which only he believes will benefit the country. His lack of a basic understanding of how our government works, such as the checks and balances with the judicial system (which he feels does not apply to him), is appalling.
John Kaufman
SaddleBrooke
Govern vs. rule
Once again, an adage pertains: “Democrats know how to govern. Republicans know how to rule.”
Barbara Benjamin
Foothills
Trust but verify
DOGE under Elon Musk leadership has made accusations of finding widespread fraud and abuse of government funds. President Reagan used the Russian proverb trust but verify. I do not see anyone verifying the accusations DOGE is making. I personally see the committee acting as cover for an unjustified extension of Trump’s tax breaks and view MAGA as conning the American public. The American people need to ask their representatives how they can support a $4-10 trillion tax break without verifying the audit results. As one economist said, there is no free lunch.
Joseph Sipp
Midtown
Reinstate transit fares
The City is facing a budget crisis. The transit system is one of our biggest costs. A sensible solution is to return transit fares to a sliding scale: Those who can afford it pay full fare and those who need help get a reduction or no fare. Everyone can enroll and get an ID for their fare category. That is not too much to ask of bus riders — that is how it was done pre-COVID. It equates to safety, equity, and a source of income for the City to maintain a good transit system. It is disingenuous to say instituting fares will result in reduced ridership — any amount of recovery at the fare box will help even if ridership declines. Getting rid of popular bus routes (like Route #5) will do more harm to our transit system than bringing back fares.
Bonnie Poulos
Midtown
Funding city services
There is growing support for a carefully crafted .5% city sales tax package covering transportation elements (including bus service and paving maintenance), along with police/fire, housing and other high-priority elements.
Ward 6 Councilmember Uhlich said in her April 7 newsletter: “Let’s get to work with our community on a proposal for Tucson voters . . which would be funded through secondary property taxes or a simpler sales tax question addressing core needs. I can’t see myself supporting the RTA Next .5% sales tax given the times and other concerns.”
Ward 3 Councilmember Dahl said in his April 11 newsletter: “ ... (other Arizona cities) fund their (transit) systems with dedicated sales tax revenue. ... This could replace the contentious and poorly managed Regional Transportation Authority funding, which expires next year. A Tucson-based transportation plan funded by continuing the existing half-cent sales tax would improve and maintain our existing streets and also keep buses free for all.”
Donald Ijams
Midtown
Government hypocrisy
The Trump Administration has been using antisemitism as its excuse for arresting and threatening to deport those who exercised their right of free speech on college campuses, as well as an excuse for bullying universities by withholding grant money until they “mend their ways”. Columbia has already given in to this blackmail, to its discredit.
I wish to point out that the most antisemitic groups in the country — the Proud Boys, the American Nazi Party, the Ku Klux Klan, etc — are free to spout any amount of antisemitic remarks they want and no one in the Administration blinks an eye. The other interesting point: How many Jews are getting jobs in government?
And by the bye, DEI, Trump’s other favorite whipping boy to use against schools, has nothing to do with favoring one group over another, unlike white supremacy. It’s about a level playing field. But then dictators don’t really want that, do they?
Nancy Atherton
Foothills
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