I have been reading the opinion column with interest these days. I am glad that the Tri-County News gives different opinions a chance to be heard, but also fact-checks what is included. Misinformation and outright lies are what has gotten us into this mess.
Whenever someone talks about the mandate that Donald Trump insists he has given, I have corrected them with the information that you provided which shows that the race was incredibly close and that more people voted for someone other than Donald Trump than voted for him. The Congress is also very closely split and, if the Republicans weren’t so afraid that Elon Musk will find candidates to run against them, perhaps some of them would develop a spine and stop some of the insanity.
However, my subject today is immigration and what is being done to those who are in the country illegally. Immigration is a problem that should be solved in a humane, bipartisan way. It is happening all over the world as civil wars, uprisings, and economic hardships have many human beings moving from place to place trying to find safety and economic security for themselves and their children.
But concentration camps are not the answer, unless you are Hitler. Guantanamo Bay, seriously? From what I have read, some of the folks who are being sent there are simply in the country illegally, which is not a crime, it is a civil offense according to the law. Why are the people being deported leaving in chains? This may make a few individuals excited and happy, but I find it sickening.
I think the idea is to make a big show out of the removals, showing that the Trump administration is keeping its promises, and taking attention away from the fact that inflation is on the rise, and the price of eggs continues to increase. We’ve gone from the promise of “cheaper groceries on day one” to “it’s very hard to decrease prices once they have risen.” I’m paraphrasing, but the idea is sound.
Gitmo has a very bad reputation, and it’s not even on American soil. I’m sure there is something about it being a military base that gives some leeway, but it is not the solution to simply send people to what is basically a prison.
I have heard that some of the private prison companies are offering to build more prisons (concentration camps) to house immigrants who cannot be sent back to their country of origin for some reason. So, I guess the idea there is that the taxpayers will foot the bill for the incarcerations and the prisons will profit.
We also take these immigrants out of the population, where many of them were working in construction, and at low-paying jobs that no one else want, and paying into social security that they will never be able to collect. When the crops don’t get picked and the price of housing and infrastructure skyrockets, maybe folks will realize that much of this country’s daily business is supplied by those who are undocumented and have to work for wages that someone is willing to pay them, not the minimum wages and protections provided by law. There is a reason for this, which is the profits companies can make off of these transactions.
We can do better. Let’s not put another blot on our history like the incarceration of the Japanese in World War II.
Jan Ringham
South Haven