Op-Ed |Hating on immigrants hurts everyone - except for elites

Photo: Photo by Manny Becerra/Unsplash

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by Sonali Kolhatkar

     OtherWords

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Republicans are counting on fears of immigrants to draw white conservatives to the polls. This calculation is dangerous — and it lets the real villains in our politics off the hook.

There’s a direct line between Donald Trump’s 2015 declaration about Mexican “rapists” and his 2024 lie about Haitians eating pets. Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance (R-OH), has echoed the horrific contention about Haitians even while admitting it was a lie.

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In Vance’s world, immigrants are smuggling fentanyl and importing illegal guns.

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Both men are married to women of immigrant origins and may not even believe their own lies. In fact, as a Yale law student in 2012, Vance wrote a blog post decrying Republican anti-immigrant rhetoric. But after he found how convenient it is to bash immigrants for votes, Vance asked his former professor to delete it.

During the vice presidential debate between Vance and Governor Tim Walz (D-MN), Vance scapegoated immigrants every chance he got. In Vance’s world, immigrants are smuggling fentanyl and importing illegal guns. They’re also driving up housing prices while simultaneously putting downward pressure on wages by working for pittances.

Never mind that it’s mostly U.S. citizens smuggling fentanyl, and that illegal guns are flowing the other way across the border — from the U.S. into Mexico. Never mind that it makes no sense for immigrants to be working for less while paradoxically being able to afford homes that Americans cannot.

Truth and logic are beside the point. Fear of the “other” is the plan. This makes life very dangerous for immigrants. Haitian migrants, among others, are facing threats to their safety.

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Beating the racist, anti-immigrant drum is the first step toward violence.

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Trump has repeatedly deployed Hitlerian language to describe immigrants, blaming them for “poisoning the blood” of the country and claiming that they commit homicide because they have “bad genes.” (One can hardly imagine him extending the same logic to mass shooters, who tend to be overwhelmingly white and male, or to the two white men who recently tried to assassinate him. According to Trump, being white means you have “good genes.”)

Beating the racist, anti-immigrant drum is the first step toward violence. The United Nations identifies hate speech as a “precursor to atrocity crimes, including genocide,” and scholars of past genocides have drawn clear links between language that “otherizes” whole communities and pogroms aimed at them.

Anti-immigrant lies also harm native-born Americans. Trump, Vance, and their supporters recently unleashed rumors falsely blaming immigrants for disaster relief difficulties. Elon Musk jumped on the bandwagon, claiming that “FEMA used up its budget ferrying illegals into the country instead of saving American lives.”

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell called these lies part of a “truly dangerous narrative.” Even Republican governors of hurricane-hit states are deeply appalled, warning that these lies threaten to disrupt disaster recovery efforts.

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If right-wing politicians really want to help Americans struggling with economic stressors, they could ban hedge fund managers from buying up homes.

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Most importantly, the purveyors of anti-immigrant hate let corporate power and wealthy elites — like Musk — off the hook for the problems facing Americans.  Hedge fund managers, not immigrants, are outbidding Americans for housing. Corporate employers keep wages low and privatization has ruined healthcare, not immigrants.

Oil and gas corporations are responsible for the catastrophic climate change fueling hurricanes like Helene and Milton, not immigrants. (Indeed, migrant workers often help rebuild after these catastrophes as communities struggle with a labor shortage).

If right-wing politicians really want to help Americans struggling with economic stressors, they could ban hedge fund managers from buying up homes, support single-payer health care, increase the federal minimum wage, tax billionaires, divert money from war to climate, hold fossil fuel companies accountable for climate crimes, and back a renewable energy transition.

Instead, they attack immigrants — and do nothing.

Attacking immigrants and calling for mass deportations will do nothing to ease the very real struggles people face. What it will do is whip up hate and violence, give the purveyors of hate the political power they desperately seek, and let corporate vultures off the hook.

About the author:
Sonali Kolhatkar is the host of “Rising Up With Sonali,” a television and radio show on Free Speech TV and Pacifica stations. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org.

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Keywords:

Viewpoint |Immigrants are our neighbors, isn't that enough?

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Most Americans still tell pollsters immigration is good for their communities and reject cruel deportations, especially those that separate families, target people without criminal records, or penalize people who came here as young children.

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by Meredith Lehman
      OtherWords

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I recall seeing a sign in a yard in my small hometown of around 12,000 residents. “No matter where you are from,” it said, “we’re glad you are our neighbor.”

It was positioned defiantly, facing a Trump sign that had been plunged into the neighbor’s yard across the street. It poignantly illustrated the tensions in my rural Ohio town, which — like many similar communities — has experienced a rapid influx of immigrants over the last 20 years.

The sign’s sentiment was simple yet profound. I found myself wondering then, as I wonder now, when compassion had become so complicated. It seems everyone has become preoccupied arguing over the minutiae of immigration that they’ve missed the most glaring and essential point: We are neighbors.

Small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy, a truth so widely acknowledged that it bridges the ever-growing partisan divide.

While writing this piece, I gathered studies and prepared a detailed analysis of the ways immigrants have transformed and revitalized the economies of the Rust Belt. I was going to explain how immigrants have helped fill vacant housing and industry in this region’s shrinking cities to reverse the toll of population decline.

I gathered statistics showing the economic growth and revitalization that’s happened as immigrants have brought flourishing small businesses to their new communities. Like: Despite making up only around 14 percent of the U.S. population, immigrants own 18 percent of small businesses with employees — and nearly a quarter of small businesses without employees. (And immigrants in Rust Belt cities are even more likely to be entrepreneurs.)

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Small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy, a truth so widely acknowledged that it bridges the ever-growing partisan divide. Both Vice President JD Vance and former Vice President Kamala Harris have promoted the critical role of small businesses in economic flourishing.

I was going to tell a story about Joe, a vendor at my local flea market. He and other vendors were heavily averse to migrants purchasing the dilapidated building from the previous owner. Now they laud the building’s new management and improved conditions.

I was going to describe the experiences of my recently immigrated high school peers, who sometimes fell asleep in class from sheer exhaustion after working night shifts at meatpacking plants and attending school for seven hours the next day.

I was going to explain why communities not only benefit from immigrants, but need them.

As immigration is expected to become the sole driver of U.S. population growth by 2040, restrictive immigration policies threaten to undermine this vital program, as a cornerstone of the American social safety net.

Without immigrants, I learned, U.S. communities would lose the nearly $1 trillion of state, local, and federal taxes that immigrants contribute annually. This number is almost $300 billion more than immigrants receive in government benefits.

Without immigration, the U.S. working-age population is projected to decline by approximately 6 million over the next two decades — a shift that would carry significant consequences, especially for the Social Security system. Sustained population growth is critical to preserving a balanced ratio of workers contributing to Social Security for every beneficiary receiving support.

As immigration is expected to become the sole driver of U.S. population growth by 2040, restrictive immigration policies threaten to undermine this vital program, as a cornerstone of the American social safety net. With broad public support for strengthening Social Security, embracing immigration is not just beneficial — it is essential to ensuring the program’s long-term stability and success.

I was prepared to comb through every dissent in an effort to prove why our neighbors are deserving of empathy and compassion. But none of these answers address the larger, more urgent question: When did being neighbors cease to be enough?

Most Americans still tell pollsters immigration is good for their communities and reject cruel deportations, especially those that separate families, target people without criminal records, or penalize people who came here as young children. My rural Ohio town, and countless communities like it, are slowly learning the most important lesson about this supposedly complicated issue: Compassion doesn’t need to be complicated.

Meredith Lehman is a research associate at the Institute for Policy Studies. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org

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Guest Commentary: Abbott & DeSantis have the right idea

by Glenn Mollette, Guest Commentator

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Nearly five million foreign nationals have entered the United States since Biden became President. Some people call them undocumented immigrants, some call them unauthorized immigrants, many call them illegal immigrants. If they were entering the country legally with proper documentation then we would call them documented immigrants or legal immigrants.

Wyoming has 581,075 people. Have you ever been to Yellowstone National Park? Vermont has a population of 623,251 people. The District of Columbia has a population of 714,143 people. Alaska’s population is 724,357. North Dakota has 770, 026. South Dakota’s population is 896,581. The population of Delaware is 990,334. (Stats from populationreview.com). These seven states combined have a population of under 5.5 million people. To get a more accurate count I suppose we could drop off Wyoming and that would put us closer to the total number of foreign nationals who have illegally without documentation entered crossed our borders. In other words, our country has grown the population of at least six of our smallest populated states in six years.

However, there are no worries because densely populated states won’t remain that forever. We cannot add 4-5 million illegal immigrants every two years without having serious population issues in our nation.

What would a half million of these new unauthorized immigrants do to the state of Wyoming? What about Vermont? Would Vermont like to have a generous helping of a few hundred thousand people begging for housing and food?

The population of Kentucky is about 4.5 million people which is somewhere very close to the number of illegal immigrants. Where can Kentucky add a half million people? There are no jobs in East, Kentucky but a lot of devastation from the recent flooding. West Kentucky is still trying to rebuild from the worst tornadoes in history. What about Lexington or Woodford County? They still have a nice ten mile stretch of horse farms that could easily accommodate one-half million foreigners. Put these people to work giving bourbon tours.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Florida Governor Ron Desantis have the right idea, share the love. Open borders should never mean that Texas and other border states get all the love and joy of these millions of people coming illegally into America. Texas already has 30 million people. Florida has 22 million people. Plus, Texas and Florida get hot. Hot weather and crowds are not a good combination. Martha’s Vineyard has less than 20,000 people. The climate is cooler. The water is pretty and there is some good fishing in the area as well. I can see where immigrants would be content in this part of America. Rehoboth in Delaware would also be a nice spot for the undocumented foreigners. Rehoboth is where Joe Biden likes to stroll along the Boardwalk in this quaint costal Atlantic community of fine restaurants, shops and summer vacationers. The illegals could certainly transform this little community.

California has a population of 40 million people. New York has almost 20 million and Illinois has almost 13 million with Chicago exploding with its own problems. Do any of them really have the financial ability to care for another million people?

If we do not get control of our border and regulate the flood of people who are coming into this country illegally, soon we will not have a country.

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Dr. Glenn Mollette is a syndicated American columnist and author of Grandpa's Store, American Issues, and ten other books. He is read in all 50 states. The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily representative of any other group or organization.

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This article is the sole opinions of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of The Sentinel. We welcome comments and views from our readers. Submit your letters to the editor or commentary on a current event 24/7 to editor@oursentinel.com.

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Guest Commentary: Happy to see documented immigrants come to America

by Glenn Mollette, Guest Commentator

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Americans can expect more immigrants to enter our country in the months and years ahead. Most Americans aren't opposed to more citizens. Many of us are not favorable to undocumented foreigners roaming about our country.

I've been to Mexico and a few other countries. I've always had to show my passport and answer questions when entering another country or coming back to America. It only takes a few minutes. Many years ago, my sons and I stood in a line of about a hundred people coming back to San Diego from Tijuana, Mexico. We showed our Driver's license back then and came on back into the country. No one even asked for identification when we crossed into Mexico.

I'm happy to see documented immigrants come to America. They will come and they will work. In our area of the country we have a growing population of Hispanic farmers working our farmland. There are Hispanic restaurants popping up in every town. Asian restaurants, nail salons and more are on the increase. The best little food joint in our community is owned by a Hispanic immigrant and his family. They are the hardest working restaurant people I've ever seen.

Immigrants who document and come the legal way to America are coming here for a better life.

They are not coming to sit on their backsides and collect our food stamps, welfare and whatever minimal amount of income they can obtain. Most of them come to help their families, send money back home and to achieve the American dream. They don't come to be poor Americans. Many of these immigrants who are business owners often struggle and pay the price with many hours of hard work to stay open. For most of them, paying their workers $15 an hour will mean less hired labor and more hours of labor for the owners to try to keep their businesses open.

Steve Geis, from our town had this to say recently about his documented grandfather coming to America:

"Over 100 years ago my grandfather immigrated to the U.S. from Germany. He came here via Ellis Island where it was documented where he came from as well as the destination he was going to. He said, "We know the name of the ship he was on, and names of all of its passengers. He and the many others did what was required of them to become legal citizens. Locally, we found copies of his naturalization process. He and most other immigrants did it correctly!"

He added, "I would say welcome to anybody who would follow the procedure and become a fellow citizen of our great country."

America is not opposed to legal immigrants. Most of us are opposed to undocumented people crossing our border illegally. We are opposed to anyone from any nation who might come with any intent to harm our country.

Let's continue to keep America a beautiful country for legal immigrants and a safe, free place for all.

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Dr. Glenn Mollette is a syndicated American columnist and author of American Issues, Every American Has An Opinion and ten other books. He is read in all 50 states. The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily representative of any other group or organization.

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This article is the sole opinions of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of The Sentinel. We welcome comments and views from our readers.

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Why the Far-Right lies about immigrants

Photo: StockSnap/Pixabay

by Peter Certo
      OtherWords

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When my dad moved to southwest Ohio in the early 1970s, the Dayton-Springfield area’s second city was home to over 80,000 people. When I was growing up nearby in the 1990s, it was 70,000. Today, it’s less than 60,000.

Springfield’s decline looks like an awful lot of Rust Belt cities and towns. And behind those numbers is a lot of human suffering.

Corporations engineered trade deals that made it cheaper to move jobs abroad, where they could pay workers less and pollute more with impunity. As the region’s secure blue collar jobs dried up, so did the local tax base — and as union membership dwindled, so did social cohesion.

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Local employers have heaped praise on their Haitian American workers.

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Young people sought greener pastures elsewhere while those who remained nursed resentments, battled a flood of opioids, and gritted their teeth through empty promises from politicians.

It’s a sad chapter for countless American cities, but it hardly needs to be the last one. After all, the region’s affordable housing — and infrastructure built to support larger populations — can make it attractive for new arrivals looking to build a better life. And they in turn revitalize their new communities.

So it was in Springfield, where between 15,000 and 20,000 Haitian migrants have settled in the last few years. “On Sunday afternoons, you could suddenly hear Creole mass wafting through downtown streets,” NPR reported. “Haitian restaurants started popping up.”

One migrant told the network he’d heard that “Ohio is the [best] place to come get a job easily.” He now works at a steel plant and as a Creole translator. Local employers have heaped praise on their Haitian American workers, while small businesses have reaped the benefits of new customers and wages have surged.

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Some powerful people don’t want to share prosperity equally. So they lie.

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Reversing decades of population decline in a few short years is bound to cause some growing pains. But on balance, Springfield is a textbook case of how immigration can change a region’s luck for the better.

“Immigrants are good for this country,” my colleagues Lindsay Koshgarian and Alliyah Lusuegro have written. “They work critical jobs, pay taxes, build businesses, and introduce many of our favorite foods and cultural innovations (donuts, anyone?)… They make the United States the strong, diverse nation that it is.”

In fact, it was earlier waves of migration — including African Americans from the South, poor whites from Appalachia, and immigrants from abroad — that fueled much of the industrial heartland’s earlier prosperity.

But some powerful people don’t want to share prosperity equally. So they lie.

“From politicians who win office with anti-immigrant campaigns to white supremacists who peddle racist conspiracy theories and corporations that rely on undocumented workers to keep wages low and deny workers’ rights,” Lindsay and Alliyah explain, “these people stoke fear about immigrants to divide us for their own gain.”

So it is with an absurd and dangerous lie — peddled recently by Donald Trump, JD Vance, Republican politicians, and a bunch of internet trolls — that Haitian Americans are fueling a crime wave in Springfield, abducting and eating people’s pets, and other racist nonsense.

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It’s lies like these, not immigrants, who threaten the recovery of Rust Belt cities.

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“According to interviews with a dozen local and county and officials as well as city police data,” Reuters reports, there’s been no “general rise in violent or property crime” or “reports or specific claims of pets being harmed” in Springfield. Instead, many of these lies appear to have originated with a local neo-Nazi group called “Blood Pride” — who are about as lovely as they sound.

“In reality, immigrants commit fewer crimes, pay more taxes, and do critical jobs that most Americans don’t want,” Lindsay and Alliyah point out.

Politicians who want you to believe otherwise are covering for someone else — like the corporations who shipped jobs out of communities like Springfield in the first place — all to win votes from pathetic white nationalists in need of a new hobby. It’s lies like these, not immigrants, who threaten the recovery of Rust Belt cities.

Springfield’s immigrant influx is a success story, not a scandal. And don’t let any desperate politicians tell you otherwise.

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Peter Certo is the communications director of the Institute for Policy Studies and editor of OtherWords.org.

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Commentary |Anti-Immigrant legislation doesn’t serve anyone but prison contractors

by Sulma Arias

      OtherWords

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The Laken Riley Act is an assault on due process, undermining all of our rights to make for-profit prison CEOs richer.

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You’re reading the words of a formerly undocumented immigrant.

When I fled El Salvador four decades ago, I was 12 years old and alone. I was escaping the country’s civil war, where U.S.-backed death squads had made murders and rape our daily reality.

I reunited with my sisters, my only surviving family, in Wichita, Kansas. Once there, I helped open churches, started businesses, and raised three daughters. There were times I wasn’t sure we’d make it to the end of the month, but I was grateful for the sense of peace and security we were able to create here.

That’s why I’m so alarmed that the new Republican-led Congress has chosen to open with a bill, H.R. 29,  that strikes fear in the hearts of immigrant families all across the country. This bill would strip judges of discretion and require immigrants to be detained and subject to deportation if they’re accused — not even convicted — of even minor offenses like shoplifting.

This major assault on due process won’t keep anyone safer. It would terrorize all immigrants in this country, who studies show are much less likely to commit crimes of any kind than native-born Americans.

So who benefits from H.R. 29? Private prison corporations like CoreCivic and GEO Group, who made a fortune during the last Trump administration by running private prisons for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

CoreCivic and GEO kept immigrants and asylum seekers in inhumane and toxic conditions with poor hygiene and exposed women and children to sexual predators. Under this new law, cynical executives will siphon off more public dollars, and wealthy investors will reap more rewards, from abusing and demonizing people seeking refuge from violence or poverty.

When Trump won, private prison stocks soared. Why? Because investors anticipated making a fortune detaining immigrants. More than 90 percent of migrants detained by ICE end up in for-profit facilities.

GEO Group, which maxed out its campaign contributions to Trump, told its investors they could make almost $400 million per year supporting “future needs for ICE and the federal government” in a second Trump term. Their stock price nearly doubled in November.

Whether those detained are guilty or not, CoreCivic and GEO get paid. That’s what H.R. 29 is for: advancing corporate greed, not protecting Americans.

We all have a stake in stopping private prison corporations from becoming more powerful, regardless of our language, race, gender, or community. In addition to jailing immigrants, for-profit prison companies also look for ways to put citizens in prison more often — and for longer — so they can make more money.

Whenever we allow fundamental rights to be taken away, we erode our shared humanity and diminish all of our rights and freedoms.

The people behind H.R. 29 want us to be afraid of each other so we won’t stand together. They want to be able to barge into our homes, schools, and churches to take our neighbors and loved ones away. They want workers to be too scared to stand up to their bosses’ abuse. All so their donors in the private prison industry can make more money.

Democrats will need to find their way in this new Congress. Falling in line behind nativist fear-mongers who take millions in campaign contributions from the private-prison industry is not the right way to do it.

Americans demand better. We want true leadership with an affirmative vision for the future of this country and dignity for all people, including immigrants.

H.R. 29 targets whole communities because of the language we speak and the color of our skin. Instead, our elected leaders, regardless of party, must work to address people’s needs through building an economy that works for all of us, not just the wealthy few.

Sulma Arias is executive director of People’s Action, the nation’s largest network of grassroots power-building groups, with more than a million members in 30 states. This op-ed was adapted from OurFuture.org and distributed for syndication by OtherWords.org.

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Commentary |America can’t afford Trump’s mass deportations

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For the cost of mass deportations, we could instead erase medical debt, provide universal school lunches, and end homelessness.

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by Alliyah Lusuegro

      OtherWords

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President Trump has made it clear that he’s dead set on attacking our immigrant friends, families, and neighbors — and that the only people he’ll protect are his loyalists and billionaires.

Since day one, Trump has launched a blatantly hateful agenda against immigrants. He’s issued executive orders that would unlawfully shut down asylum at the U.S. southern border, use the military to separate families, and make it easier to detain and deport migrants — including detaining them at the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison.

Meanwhile, anti-immigrant lawmakers in Congress gave Trump a helping hand by passing a law punishing undocumented people, including minors, with deportation for minor offenses — even if they’re not convicted.

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Undocumented people contributed $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022 — just one tax year, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

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These attacks come at an enormous cost to the entire country. The American Immigration Council estimates that mass deportations will cost $88 billion per year over the course of a decade.

My colleagues and I calculated that this $88 billion could instead erase medical debt for 40 million Americans. Even just a fraction of it — $11 billion — could provide free lunch to all school children in the United States.

There are already 40,000 people locked up in detention centers — and Trump’s detention expansion plan would triple that capacity. Republicans in the House and Senate are proposing plans of an eye-popping  $175 billion or more to detain and deport undocumented people.

That’s enough to fund affordable housing for every unhoused person and household facing eviction in this country for several years — with about enough left over to make sure uninsured people with opioid use disorder can get treatment.

Illustration: Dee/Pixabay

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Nor are these the only costs. Undocumented people contributed $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022 — just one tax year, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. That’s nearly $100 billion in lost revenue a year that everyone else would end up having to cover.

But these attacks aren’t going unopposed. People are showing up for their immigrant neighbors and loved ones, making clear they simply won’t accept the nightmare of mass deportations and detentions.

The groups United We Dream, CASA, Make the Road States, and Action Lab recently pledged to build “a strong and sustainable movement to defend ourselves and our neighbors.” With their #CommunitiesNotCages campaign, Detention Watch Network is working with local communities to protest ICE actions and shut down detention centers.

And the list goes on.

On February 1, thousands of people blocked a highway in Los Angeles to protest against ICE raids. Just two days later, many gathered in solidarity for a Day Without Immigrants. On this day, students stayed home from school, employees didn’t show up to work, and over 250 businesses closed nationwide to show how important immigrants are to everyone’s day-to-day lives.

Others are using lawsuits to fight back. Five pregnant women, with the help of immigrant rights groups, sued the Trump administration’s attempt to end birthright citizenship. Agreeing with the mothers, three federal judges just blocked this unconstitutional order.

Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union and other major legal organizations sued the administration for seeking to shut down asylum at the border — on the grounds that it’s a violation of long-time international and domestic law.

Finally, my fellow immigrants and I are also standing our ground. We’re stating the facts: Immigration is good for our country, our economy, and our culture — something 68 percent of Americans agree with. And we’re here to stay.

Immigrants are essential to this country. We bring opportunity and possibility to the United States. And not only do we contribute as students and professionals, business owners, and essential workers — we’re also human beings trying to live good and successful lives like anyone else. We’re a part of the American story.

Now and more than ever, we’ll continue to show up for each other — and we hope you will, too. Our lives and families depend on it.

Alliyah Lusuegro is the Outreach Coordinator for the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org.

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Letter to the Editor: Jesus would have been a socialist

Dear Editor,

The Republican party boasts it holds the market on Christianity. It should own up and embrace - “What would Jesus do?” On almost any political issue whether its immigration, gun violence, crime, or social issues, including care for the – destitute, homeless, sick, mentally ill or climate change…etc., republicans hate the question and pivot to “What about abortion?”

Noteworthy, there is no mention of abortion in the Bible, but love for and how we should treat our neighbors, including immigrants and needy is mentioned many times throughout. I don’t know of anybody “for” abortion. Yet, republicans demonize pro-choicers that believe what a woman does with her body, reproductive organs or abortion a personal decision between her and God as “baby killers.” Pro-choicers support counseling and adoption as alternatives and more accessible.

When asked, “What would Jesus do at our border?” conservatives counter with extreme responses like “Would you let them into your home?” That’s literally a “devil’s advocate” response, but Jesus would.

With respect to the immigration problem and the needy, there is no better parable than Mathew 25: 35-40 - “For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; …”

Republicans fear compassion and letting immigrants into our country will make it weaker and is naïve. There’s no evidence, but that’s where Christian faith comes in. Throughout the Bible God rewarded kingdoms and individuals that practiced his teachings, guidance and instructions with faith and punished those that didn’t.

Had the word socialist existed during Jesus’s ministry, Pharisees no doubt would have called him and followers socialists for administering and advocating for the out-casted, oppressed and needy.

According to Gallup 47% of Americans attend church. In the last two decades I’ve witnessed a large drop in attendance. I can’t help contribute people being less accountable for their actions and how they treat people, especially immigrants, to the decline.

My church service opens: “Here we love God, love our neighbor…” In respect to the problem at our border, “love our neighbor” as Jesus taught should resonate within the heart and souls of all Christians. Churches conduct ministries overseas, but where’s their presence at the border? How can we turn our back on those trying to survive, escape violence and persecution, when our country is the wealthiest in the world?

Because of all the Internet hate filled chatter, threats of violence, dog whistling, the coup attempt on January 6th seemed possible. When Obama was elected, moderate republican think tanks stated that to win an election their party had to garnish the vote of people of color. After Obama was re-elected republicans consisting of a growing number of white supremacists and violent militia recognized that their party couldn’t win fairly and were willing to win at any cost even if it meant storming the capitol, stopping the electoral vote count and overturning the election. Bullied by extremists, moderate republicans have cowardly stood back and allowed the hijack of their party and assault on our democracy.

Republicans fear whites becoming the minority, as trend indicates, and immigrants gaining citizenship and right to vote will reduce chances of winning elections. By demonizing and stereotyping immigrants as gang members, drug traffickers, rapists, stoking fear and greed saying they are going to take jobs and material resources, believe they can stop or delay the inevitable.

The federal government administers over 80 programs that address specific needs of the poor, destitute, homeless, sick, physically and mentally disabled, under un-and-under educated and disadvantaged. In the past decade practically all of these programs and bills below passed by democrats were opposed by republicans along partisan lines.

The Covid pandemic reaped havoc in hundreds of millions of deaths and on the world economy, resulting in worldwide inflation. In response congress passed: American Rescue Plan providing economic relief and saving millions from eviction; and Inflation Reduction Act that makes urgent investments to lower - prescription drug, health care, and energy costs, takes most aggressive action to confront the climate crisis and shifts the tax burden from lower and middle income to the super wealthy. By executive order the President made hearing aids available over the counter and much more affordable.

Nowhere greater is the opportunity to show compassion than in this election. Which candidate and platform best mirrors in answer to “What would Jesus do?” I invite and encourage you to attend church, pray for our country and right decision as to how you vote.

Bill Young
Pensacola, Florida

Guest Commentary: They are coming here and moving in

by Glenn Mollette, Guest Commentator

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Imagine a family of six people coming to your house. They knock on the door. They look tired, frail, dirty and very hungry. They are desperate. Two of the six people are under six years old. Their clothes are rags and their shoes are barely still on their feet. They tell you about their plight. They have traveled a long way. They left their country in search of a better life. They need you to help them. They need you to give them shelter, food, clothes and some cash. They need to stay with you for a while.

What if your sole income is $2,000 a month in Social Security? What if your pantry is no longer overstocked? What if you have trouble saving enough money each month to pay your utility bills and keep your car running? Your heart goes out to these people.

You would like to help them, but you don’t have the means to care for yourself and so you have to say, "I can’t. The reason I can’t is because seriously, I just don’t have the financial means to do so."

The next thing that happens is they totally ignore what you’ve just said and come into your house anyway. They scatter out to your bedrooms and begin to make themselves at home. They open your refrigerator and eat the food you have and then ask you to fix them more. Next, they need money.

"Do you have money you can please give us?" they ask. You ask them to leave but they remind you they are desperate people who need for you to help them.

Next, they insist you go to the bank and draw out your life savings and hand it over to them. They are desperate and need money. They promise they will leave. Now you are scared.

You wonder what’s next? You call The White House. You talk to Joe Biden and he lets you know that Kamela Harris is on top of this and hangs up. Of course, you don’t see any of them moving in with him. Delaware is a long way from the border. He doesn’t figure Immigrants will be much of a problem up there when he retires.

At least sixty thousand immigrants are coming to the border of Mexico to enter the United States. They are all desperate people in search of adequate housing, jobs, free education, free medical insurance and more.

Panama’s Prime Minister sounded a warning that a massive group is passing their county and many of them are coming from Haiti. Erika Mouynes is reported to have notified the White House of the most recent migration surge. She recently described how her country has seen 80,000 Haitian immigrants and evacuees crossing from South America, through Panama, headed to the United States this year.

Outlaws rob out of desperation. Drug addicts steal and kill out of desperation. Rapists assault out of deranged desperation. We don’t overlook these criminal acts in America.

They are coming here. They are moving in. They are desperate for shelter, food, free education, free Medicare, free transportation and more. Their desperation doesn’t make it right.

America is a nation of immigrants. Most of them have come legally and followed an orderly process. If our national leaders do not gain control of our border crisis a further humanitarian crisis unlike, we’ve ever seen is fast approaching.

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Dr. Glenn Mollette is a syndicated American columnist and author of American Issues, Every American Has An Opinion and ten other books. He is read in all 50 states. The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily representative of any other group or organization.

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This article is the sole opinions of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of The Sentinel. We welcome comments and views from our readers. Submit your letters to the editor or commentary on a current event 24/7 to editor@oursentinel.com.

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Backtracking the Biden-Trump debate, here's what they got wrong, and right

by Amy Maxmen
KFF Health News and PolitiFact

Trump campaigned on a promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, or ACA. In the White House, Trump supported a failed effort to do just that. He repeatedly said he would dismantle the health care law in campaign stops and social media posts throughout 2023.

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Democratic and Republican presidential nominees, shared a debate stage June 27 for the first time since 2020, in a confrontation that — because of strict debate rules — managed to avoid the near-constant interruptions that marred their previous encounters.

Biden, who spoke in a raspy voice and often struggled to articulate his arguments, said at one point that his administration “finally beat Medicare.” Trump, meanwhile, repeated numerous falsehoods, including that Democrats want doctors to be able to abort babies after birth.

Illustration: Richard Duijnstee/Pixabay

Trump took credit for the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision that upended Roe v. Wade and returned abortion policy to states. “This is what everybody wanted,” he said, adding “it’s been a great thing.” Biden’s response: “It’s been a terrible thing.”

In one notable moment, Trump said he would not repeal FDA approval for medication abortion, used last year in nearly two-thirds of U.S. abortions. Some conservatives have targeted the FDA’s more than 20-year-old approval of the drug mifepristone to further restrict access to abortion nationwide.

“The Supreme Court just approved the abortion pill. And I agree with their decision to have done that, and I will not block it,” Trump said. The Supreme Court ruled this month that an alliance of anti-abortion medical groups and doctors lacked standing to challenge the FDA’s approval of the drug. The court’s ruling, however, did not amount to an approval of the drug.

CNN hosted the debate, which had no audience, at its Atlanta headquarters. CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash moderated. The debate format allowed CNN to mute candidates’ microphones when it wasn’t their turn to speak.

Our PolitiFact partners fact-checked the debate in real time as Biden and Trump clashed on the economy, immigration, and abortion, and revisited discussion of their ages. Biden, 81, has become the oldest sitting U.S. president; if Trump defeats him, he would end his second term at age 82. You can read the full coverage here and excerpts detailing specific health-related claims follow:

Biden: “We brought down the price [of] prescription drug[s], which is a major issue for many people, to $15 for an insulin shot, as opposed to $400.”

Half True. Biden touted his efforts to reduce prescription drug costs by referring to the $35 monthly insulin price cap his administration put in place as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. But he initially flubbed the number during the debate, saying it was lowered to $15. In his closing statement, Biden corrected the amount to $35.

The price of insulin for Medicare enrollees, starting in 2023, dropped to $35 a month, not $15. Drug pricing experts told PolitiFact when it rated a similar claim that most Medicare enrollees were likely not paying a monthly average of $400 before the changes, although because costs vary depending on coverage phases and dosages, some might have paid that much in a given month.

Trump: “I’m the one that got the insulin down for the seniors.”

Mostly False. When he was president, Trump instituted the Part D Senior Savings Model, a program that capped insulin costs at $35 a month for some older Americans in participating drug plans.

But because it was voluntary, only 38% of all Medicare drug plans, including Medicare Advantage plans, participated in 2022, according to KFF. Trump’s plan also covered only one form of each dosage and insulin type.

Biden points to the Inflation Reduction Act’s mandatory $35 monthly insulin cap as a major achievement. This cap applies to all Medicare prescription plans and expanded to all covered insulin types and dosages. Although Trump’s model was a start, it did not have the sweeping reach that Biden’s mandatory cap achieved.

Biden: Trump “wants to get rid of the ACA again.”

Half True. In 2016, Trump campaigned on a promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, or ACA. In the White House, Trump supported a failed effort to do just that. He repeatedly said he would dismantle the health care law in campaign stops and social media posts throughout 2023. In March, however, Trump walked back this stance, writing on his Truth Social platform that he “isn’t running to terminate” the ACA but to make it “better” and “less expensive.” Trump hasn’t said how he would do this. He has often promised Obamacare replacement plans without ever producing one.

Trump: “The problem [Democrats] have is they’re radical, because they will take the life of a child in the eighth month, the ninth month, and even after birth.”

False. Willfully terminating a newborn’s life is infanticide and illegal in every U.S. state. 

Most elected Democrats who have spoken publicly about this have said they support abortion under Roe v. Wade’s standard, which allowed access up to fetal viability — typically around 24 weeks of pregnancy, when the fetus can survive outside the womb. Many Democrats have also said they support abortions past this point if the treating physician deems it necessary.

Medical experts say situations resulting in fetal death in the third trimester are rare — fewer than 1% of abortions in the U.S. occur after 21 weeks — and typically involve fatal fetal anomalies or life-threatening emergencies affecting the pregnant person. For fetuses with very short life expectancies, doctors may induce labor and offer palliative care. Some families choose this option when facing diagnoses that limit their babies’ survival to minutes or days after delivery.

Some Republicans who have made claims similar to Trump’s point to Democratic support of the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2022, which would have prohibited many state government restrictions on access to abortion, citing the bill’s provisions that say providers and patients have the right to perform and receive abortion services without certain limitations or requirements that would impede access. Anti-abortion advocates say the bill, which failed in the Senate by a 49-51 vote, would have created a loophole that eliminated any limits on abortions later in pregnancy.

Alina Salganicoff, director of KFF’s Women’s Health Policy program, said the legislation would have allowed health providers to perform abortions without obstacles such as waiting periods, medically unnecessary tests and in-person visits, or other restrictions. The bill would have allowed an abortion after viability when, according to the bill, “in the good-faith medical judgment of the treating health care provider, continuation of the pregnancy would pose a risk to the pregnant patient’s life or health.”

Trump: “Social Security, he’s destroying it, because millions of people are pouring into our country, and they’re putting them onto Social Security. They’re putting them onto Medicare, Medicaid.”

False. It’s wrong to say that immigration will destroy Social Security. Social Security’s fiscal challenges stem from a shortage of workers compared with beneficiaries.

Immigration is far from a fiscal fix-all for Social Security’s challenges. But having more immigrants in the United States would likely increase the worker-to-beneficiary ratio, potentially for decades, thus extending the program’s solvency.

Most immigrants in the U.S. without legal permission are also ineligible for Social Security. However, people who entered the U.S. without authorization and were granted humanitarian parole — temporary permission to stay in the country — for more than one year are eligible for benefits from the program.

Immigrants lacking legal residency in the U.S. are generally ineligible to enroll in federally funded health care coverage such as Medicare and Medicaid. (Some states provide Medicaid coverage under state-funded programs regardless of immigration status. Immigrants are eligible for emergency Medicaid regardless of their legal status.)

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KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

Subscribe to KFF Health News' free Morning Briefing.

Immigration courts offer many barriers and too few solutions to a complex process

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Garcia noted it is a misconception most immigrants speak Spanish. She has heard many other languages, from Arabic to Creole to Mandarin.

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Photo: Saúl Bucio/Unsplash

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by Judith Ruiz-Branch
Illinois News Connection

CHICAGO - As the Trump administration's deportation efforts continue, more people find themselves in immigration court.

Immigration law is complicated, and most immigrants who navigate the court system do so by themselves.

Kelly Garcia, a reporter for Injustice Watch who covers immigration courts in Chicago, said the lack of legal representation and language barriers add to the complexity. Garcia noted almost no one she has encountered in the Chicago court speaks English, yet all the signs and case sheets are in English. Many show up late or miss their hearings because of it.

"If you miss your court hearing, the judge can order your removal," Garcia pointed out. "These barriers have very serious consequences for people - and it's very sad, honestly. It's very sad to witness that."

Garcia noted it is a misconception most immigrants speak Spanish. She has heard many other languages, from Arabic to Creole to Mandarin and said most people do not know they need to request a court interpreter in advance of their hearing or risk having their case delayed. Those who show up late or not at all could be immediately removed from the country.

Research shows those with legal representation fare better in court. But people in immigration court do not have the right to an attorney if they cannot afford one. The burden of proof, to show they were charged incorrectly or request temporary relief through asylum, falls on them.

Groups like the National Immigrant Justice Center and Legal Aid Chicago are on-site to help address some gaps. As the daughter of an immigrant, Garcia emphasized she can relate to the range of emotions she sees in court.

"It just feels very personal to me, because I know how it impacted my mom," Garcia recounted. "I know how hard and difficult that was for her and I also recognize that it's only gotten harder for a lot of people, especially for people who have migrated [from] very dangerous conditions, here."

Garcia added she has seen many people come to the U.S. for reasons beyond their control. She said her time covering the immigration court has prompted her to work on creating an "explainer" story to help answer the many questions she hears from defendants every day.

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Other interesting articles:

• US Postal service proposals don't seem that great for mail customers
• Staying berry healthy; FDA steps up with strategy to address contaminated food imports
• Illinois lawmakers seek full decriminalization of sex work
• Illinois farmers await proposed Trump tariffs, questioning how they will affect their agribusiness operations

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