Abusing immigration system
Thirty-three Senate Democrats have sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to designate El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala for eligibility under the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program. This could affect hundreds of thousands of Central Americans already here, who entered the country undocumented, claimed asylum and are awaiting immigration court dates. It also would apply to future people coming from Central America, who would claim asylum, then become eligible for TPS. TPS designation allows people to indefinitely stay in America, have work authorization and travel abroad. Democrats are using the guise of climate, social and economic conditions in Central America to justify this end around immigration reform legislation. Democrats have been trying to provide citizenship to those already on TPS, and it was included in Biden’s Build Back Better budget reconciliation legislation, until the Senate parliamentarian nixed it for not being fiscal in nature to the budget. Senate Democrats are seeking to bastardize the TPS program and encourage millions of Central Americans to come, further abusing our immigration system.
Alan Jeffords
Midtown
Halting the spread
Re: the Jan. 10 letter “Biden has failed on testing front.”
The writer suggests a direct correlation between the number of tests and COVID-19 deaths. Tests are a diagnostic tool. Doctors use them to confirm infection, individuals to confirm they remain COVID-free and employers to ensure their workplace remains safe. Tests are only useful in preventing deaths if those who test positive voluntarily isolate themselves from others, including family members, to protect them and halt the spread. Not everyone does so.
In response to the highly contagious omicron variant among the unvaccinated, Biden is providing an additional 500 million free rapid tests, redoubling vaccination and booster efforts, establishing new testing sites, and promoting the manufacture of more tests.
As the writer pointed out, Biden has done well in getting people vaccinated. Currently, over 200 million Americans are fully vaccinated, including 4.7 million teens.
Biden is clearly doing his part by continuing to provide millions of vaccine doses to prevent infection and millions of tests to identify and halt its spread. The rest is up to us.
Jacolyn Marshall
Oro Valley
Water for life
Water security and our future in the Southwest has always been on my mind. I believe it’s the biggest threat to our future, and I’ve never felt that I’ve had a champion for my concerns and fears. Climate change isn’t some far-off problem that we can ignore. We’re already experiencing a historic drought, and our aging water infrastructure can’t support us if it goes unfixed. Our tribal communities have been without safe and sound water infrastructure to protect themselves and their land for many years.
With the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, I now know that I have a real advocate in the U.S. Senate with Sen. Mark Kelly. Kelly called for hearings on the Colorado River shortage and secured key Arizona priorities safeguarding Arizona’s water future.
In the future, we will see the impact of drought mitigation efforts, our tribal communities finally seeing the infrastructure they deserve, and water resiliency. Thank you, Sen. Kelly, for protecting us and our land.
Judy J. Gillies
Oro Valley
Masking and personal freedom
Today, Jan. 11, a handyman who I had talked with about changing out a kitchen faucet turned up at my door. He, a middle-aged man, and his young assistant weren’t wearing a mask (I was).
I asked them if they had masks, the older guy said “no,” so I offered them masks and he said “no masks.”
Well, I said, I guess that means no work. They left in a huff. As I closed the door I felt quite angry that anyone could be that inconsiderate or oblivious to the concerns and well-being of others for some stupid “personal freedom” malarkey. But that’s the reality today isn’t it.
Robert Scanlon
Midtown
School funding
If both houses of the Legislature don’t lift the cap on the Aggregate Expenditure Limit, public schools will be cut 16% during the fourth quarter of the fiscal year. What classes, activities or programs are you willing to forego for your child because our elected officials aren’t willing to do what’s best for the 1 million kids in Arizona public schools?
Jim Thomas
Northwest side
McKale madness due to poor policy
The frustration of fans attending events at McKale is directly attributable to muddled and inconsistent public health policy and messaging. Mask policies attempt to straddle the fence under the guise of doing something. Instead, I believe they’ve created unnecessary doubt and pitted people against each other. With the effectiveness of cloth masks now debunked, UA is doubling down mandating wear of N95s/KN95s or equivalent.
Forcing McKale staff and security to be the mask police is an unfair, impossible task. Either there’s a clear and present danger or there’s not. Either close events to the public or let it all go and allow people to assess their own risk.
Justin Carroll
Midtown
Filibuster false hope
Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin say they do not want to change the filibuster rules because they fear the Republicans will use the changes against Democrats in the future. I expect the Republicans will change the rules if it is to their advantage. If the senators do not believe this, they are foolish. The first time I heard of the “nuclear option” was from Sen. Mitch McConnell. What does that tell you?
So to not change the rules because they do not want the Republicans to use the change is a false hope. Democrats might as well change the rules now and utilize the change to protect the voting rights and get necessary legislation passed.
Dale Hutchings
Northeast side
Voting rights under attack
I believe the freedom to vote is under attack by extremist state lawmakers across the country who want to put up deliberate barriers to make it harder to vote — especially for people of color.
Congress must act now to implement national standards for federal elections. The Freedom to Vote Act would protect our right to vote, end partisan gerrymandering, counter undemocratic and dangerous election sabotage efforts, and help to eliminate the undue influence of dark money in our elections.
The filibuster has stopped the beginning of debate from happening on the Freedom to Vote Act. Without the chance to debate, important issues such as this are stalled for partisan politics. Sens. Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema must do everything they can to pass the Freedom to Vote Act, including fixing the filibuster, to realize the promise of democracy for all.
Eve Shapiro
Foothills
