When it comes to the latest brouhaha with immigration — application of “Title 42” — both sides are wrong and, frankly, full of it.
First, remember what Title 42 is: It’s supposedly a “temporary” emergency measure allowing the government, due to COVID-19, not to admit those seeking asylum. President Trump invoked it during the pandemic, but newsflash — COVID has passed as a mass human health danger here. So in that regard let’s call BS on the Republicans.
But the holier than thou Democrats are equally full of it. In short, pretty much all immigration seekers at the border are claiming asylum status based on “persecution.”
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Sorry, but that’s mostly nonsense. It turns a rare exception into the norm. Though almost all claim it, only a small percentage at the border are fleeing actual “persecution,” as the term is defined.
Most are fleeing bad economic conditions and perhaps bad governments, but not persecution. They simply want a better life, and all understand the magic word into the country is “asylum.” Once here, too few show up for their hearing, as they’ve already achieved what they want.
So, if we’re being real, those who support asylum status are playing games, no different than those trying to stop it with Title 42.
William Choslovsky, Lincoln Park
Don’t reward bad behavior, in kids or politicians
In 2016, Donald Trump rode résumé embellishment to the White House. Some people voted for him because they believed his claim to have been a great businessman, but his actual business record was spotty, as the people of New York know.
After that, how surprising is it that George Santos, another New Yorker, has just used résumé embellishment on steroids (some might call it massive lying) to bag a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives? Trump was rewarded for his misrepresentations. It is a copycat world, and what works gets copied.
That last point is why Russian dictator (let’s dispense with the “president” nonsense and call him what he is) Vladimir Putin cannot be allowed anything that he can claim as a victory in his unjustified and obscene war against the Ukrainian people.
If he can present what he is doing in Ukraine as a win, others who covet their neighbors’ territory (China being the most prominent, but not the only example) may be prompted to act, and the cost of dealing with them will not be small. Continued support of Ukraine is the most cost-effective way of not only beating Putin but also blunting the ambitions of those who will start planning their own empire-building projects.
As anybody who has raised a child should know, dealing promptly and firmly with misbehavior requires the least effort in the long run. The same rule applies to politicians and aspiring imperialists.
Curt Fredrikson, Mokena
