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Immigration

We need to welcome immigrants to America

The following Letter to the Editor was published in The Daily Sun on Dec 22, 2022. America considers itself to a kind and compassionate country, but our treatment of asylum-seeking immigrants is inconsistent with this image. Instead of welcoming those seeking refuge from countries with high crime rates and economic dysfunction, some of which is

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Immigration

Legislation to protect ‘dreamers’ is badly needed

The following Letter to the Editor was published in The Daily Sun on Nov 23, 2022. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is in grave peril. Congress should act before the end of the year to create permanent protections for the hundreds of thousands of people who were brought to this country as

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Immigration

No religious person can celebrate DeSantis’ abuse of immigrants

By Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post Columnist, September 21, 2022. You don’t need to be an expert in theology to know that a central tenet of the world’s major religions is to care for the sick, the weak and the vulnerable. Jews, who have been perpetual immigrants, hold dear to the Torah’s invocation: “When a stranger sojourns with

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Immigration

The U.S. needs immigration, not overheated rhetoric on migrants

By the Washington Post Editorial Board, Sept 6, 2022. Border Patrol agents are stopping unauthorized migrants coming from Mexico at record levels. Little wonder more than half of Americans now say an “invasion” is underway at the southern border, according to a recent NPR-Ipsos poll. At the same time, net immigration in the United States — the

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Events

45,000 Quilt Project comes to Punta Gorda

45,000!  It’s a huge number to contemplate.  On an average day in 2019, some 45,000 detainees were held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers. How do you visualize that? How do you memorialize each one of those individuals? Glen Ring, a member of the Human Rights Group of the Kent Street Coalition

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Immigration

Immigration advocates decry possible reopening of Homestead FL detention center

By Elitsa Bizios | Vanessa Borge HOMESTEAD, FLA. (WSVN) – Local immigration advocates sounded off on a reported decision by the Biden administration to consider reopening a detention center in Homestead as a temporary shelter for undocumented children. Speakers at a press conference held outside Homestead City Hall on Thursday expressed disbelief and disappointment after reports surfaced

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Pelosi to meet with Venezuelan exiles in Florida

TALLAHASSEE — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and South Florida Democrats plan to meet with Venezuelan exiles this week amid an ongoing stalemate in Congress over whether or not to offer protections to those who fled the South American country. Democrats have scheduled a forum on Thursday in Weston, a town that has seen an influx of Venezuelans

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All unaccompanied children removed from Homestead migrant detention facility

All unaccompanied children have been removed from the Homestead migrant detention facility in Homestead, Florida, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) confirmed on Saturday. Homestead, which has been criticized by politicians for its treatment of unaccompanied minors, was the nation’s largest facility for migrant children, housing 14,300 unaccompanied minors since March 2018. (Read more

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Child detention is big business in the Trump administration

You’ve heard the phrase “follow the money.” It turns out that when it comes to child detention, the money trail is a foul one indeed. Companies and lobbyists stand to benefit. A number of companies have won lucrative contracts with the federal government to operate child detention shelters including the   Office of Refugee Resettlement

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Speaker Pelosi urges Dems to help counter Trump’s planned ICE raids

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday warned her caucus about President Donald Trump’s planned immigration raids this weekend, urging members to spread information about undocumented immigrants’ legal rights. Those mass arrests, first reported by The New York Times, are expected to begin Sunday in nearly a dozen metro areas. (Read more in Politico.com)

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Our government sanctions child abuse

CharlotteDems.com Editor’s Note: The following letter by Charlotte Democratic Party Vice-Chair Teresa Jenkins was published in the Sun on Monday, July 1st.   Editor: Jana Lipman’s article comparing the Obama and Trump administration’s detainment of migrant children inadequately addressed the parallels. Trump’s latest plan, to house undocumented children at a Japanese-American internment camp from World

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