It is my opinion that Republicans were against E-Verify because they wanted businesses to be able to continue to hire cheaper labor. If it had passed, businesses would have been required to check legal status before hiring people. Various other bills, like the American Dream and Promise Act (2019, 2021) and bipartisan border security packages (2024), have passed one chamber but failed to advance in the other. The latest bill, written by a Republican in 2024, did not pass because Donald Trump told the House Republicans to vote against it. My opinion is that he knew his only path to the presidency was to use Biden’s failed policies on immigration. I do believe that our elected officials in both parties have let us down.

As a result of the failure to pass sensible laws, millions of illegals have been able to remain in the U.S. for years working, paying taxes and raising families. They are not rapists and murderers. I believe our country owes it to them to have a process that allows this group to remain here. I have never heard any economist say that we do not need immigrants for our economy to continue to grow. Do you really think we have enough citizens to do all jobs that are currently being filled by illegal immigrants. Really!  Or maybe those white South Africans, who are the only refugees President Trump wants, will clean our hotel rooms and harvest our food.

So, what do we have today? Masked ICE men in military clothing, most of whom have been hired in the last year, are storming our communities. The Wall Street Journal has stated that many new hires are clearly not qualified for the job and then are inadequately trained. That was so obvious in the way the ICE agents dealt with both Renee Good and Alex Pretti. In Renee’s case, the last thing she said was “I am not mad at you” before being shot three times as her car was turning in the opposite direction from the ICE agent. In Alex’s case he was attempting to help a woman who had been pushed down by an ICE agent, had a phone in one hand and the other hand on the ground before being shot nine times. However, it is clear from the videos that both were murdered. Most Americans do not think a mother of three and an ICU nurse in a veteran’s hospital are terrorists as, Donald Trump, Kristi Noem and J.D. Vance would have you believe. Don’t believe me? Watch the videos.

This is America, not Russia with their KGB or 30s Germany with their Gestapo or are we, with our secret police called ICE?  If we are killed for exercising our First Amendment rights, our democracy is lost.  Donald Trump’s policies are not the right ones for a republic that claims to be predominately Christian. Surely there is a better way!

Linda Arnold
Highlands