Haitians must be saved
In 2023, the Department of State ordered non-emergency U.S. government employees and their family members to leave Haiti due to safety risks. That order is still in effect.
Today, the Department travel advisory for Haiti states “Do Not Travel to Haiti due to the risk of crime, kidnapping, terrorism, unrest, and limited health care."
Despite this advisory, the former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security determined “Haiti no longer met the conditions for its designation for Temporary Protected Status." It was not safe for 350,000 Haitians to be returned home. Temporary meant temporary.
Further complicating the issue, in June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Trump administration had the authority to terminate the TPS program.
But Congress
could change that determination.
In April, the U.S. House passed H.R. 1689, a bill to extend TPS for Haitians until April 2029 – post the Trump administration. The vote was 224-204, with 10 Republicans in favor, including Ohio Reps. Mike Carey and Mike Turner. Senate Democrats tried to pass the extension last week, but it was blocked by a Republican senator. On July 27, TPS protections for our state’s Haitian communities expired.
Time for the Senate to pass the TPS extension bill and for our Republican Senators to persuade the President not to veto the bill.
Martin Kress, Columbus
Cook this goose
Re "Trump s patience with Thune running out," July 27: The President wants the Senate to be able to pass his voting legislation with a simple majority vote.
Fine, let's also make that the threshold for the Senate to "cook this goose" and convict him in his next impeachment.
Syd Lifshin, Columbus
Your neighbors need help
No matter what we look like, where we call home or what's in our wallets, most of us would do whatever it takes to feed our families.
But in the coming months, as Trump builds his gilded ballroom, someone you love may well go hungry because the MAGA regime and the corporate cowards that support it sought to withhold funds for food assistance that Congress has authorized for our families while they cut our health care, raise our prices and abduct our neighbors.
So, states scrambled to fund as much food assistance as possible.
Then the administration demanded that states "undo" the food assistance payments they made.
Because of this cruelty, millions still need our help now.
But if we join together as neighbors, we can ensure all families in our communities are fed, and we can also work to free America from rule by the bullies and billionaires. Many communities have been working hard to ensure their neighbors are fed.
If you are able, please donate to or volunteer with your local food bank. Find a food bank near you here. Then do what you can to save our democracy!
Laurie Winters, Tallmadge
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Haiti a bastion for kidnappers, terrorists. Refugees must be protected | Letters
