July 27, 2026 Editor, The News-Gazette: Today is another sad, sorry day in America.
Every morning I wake up and find that, incredibly, over night, Trump has pulled yet another thread of decency from the fabric of our nation and our democracy, which by now, with the Supreme Court’s blessing, is nothing but a rag.
Today marks the end of the Temporary Protection Status for some 330,000 Haitian immigrants, who came to the U.S. to escape violence, poverty and chaos, and to live productive lives. For decades, they have been doing just that. They have been working, legally, at jobs Americans don’t want. They have been the janitors and roofers, garbage collectors, cooks, cleaners - an estimated 1,300 are nursing assistants, caring for over 65,000 patients a day.
Rounding them up, destroying their families and sending them back to Haiti will prove to be a death sentence for many of them. It will leave gaping holes in the American workforce and it will be a very expensive project that American taxpayers will be forced to fund.
And we can’t afford to fund it. We’ve already wasted over $100 billion on the stupidest war in the history of man, and God knows how much on ICE and detention centers and private prisons and Trump’s trips to Maralago and his shiny new jet.
So why is Trump doing this now? The administration will provide many justifications that will not include keeping attention off the Epstein files. But the fundamental reason is simple: Hate. Racially motivated hate, and hatred in general for everything good and decent that once made this a great nation. PHILLIPWELCH Rockbridge County
