Op-Ed

Washington, DC May 20, 2020 – The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) expressed dismay over the announcement by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) extending indefinitely their order blocking entry to asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border. AILA Executive Director Benjamin Johnson said, “The Administration’s latest […]

May 20, 2020 – The virus is still spreading. And Donald Trump continues to deny and deflect, failing the people he was elected to serve. www.lincolnproject.us

New York, 20 May 2020 –   The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the U.S. Administration’s announcement today that they have extended the border closures indefinitely, under the pretext of mitigating the novel coronavirus, deeming seeking asylum “nonessential travel.” Olga Byrne, the Director of U.S. Immigration for the International Rescue Committee, said:  Fleeing for one’s life […]

May 19, 2020 – As America reopens for business, you might expect Jeff Bezos, the richest man in America, and his Amazon corporation, one of the most profitable corporations in America, to set the corporate standard for how to protect the health of American workers. Think again.   Amazon’s warehouses have become Covid-19 hot spots, […]

Washington, DC, May 18, 2020 – The Trump administration’s family separation policies embodied a shocking level of cruelty and callousness. Remember that the administration was prepared to rip as many as 26,000 children away from their parents, with no plans for reunification, and they were aware of the emotional and mental health traumas children separated […]

May 18, 2020 – The Environmental Protection Agency has opened the door for a U.S. government agency to ignore scientific evidence in its decision-making, which we fear will endanger the health of millions of Americans. At a time when the federal government should be focused on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, the EPA is pushing forward […]

May 15, 2020 – The COVID-19 pandemic continues to worsen in the USA with 1·3 million cases and an estimated death toll of 80684 as of May 12. States that were initially the hardest hit, such as New York and New Jersey, have decelerated the rate of infections and deaths after the implementation of 2 […]

May 14, 220 – Welcome to Chewing the Fat, our weekly talk show here at WXYZ.  Today, we have a special treat for you — two guests who will answer the question on everyone’s mind. Should we stay at home in virtual quarantine or should we head out the front door and reopen the economy? The coronavirus […]

May 13, 2020 – President Trump has made clear that he accepts, in his words, no “responsibility at all” for the devastating coronavirus toll. That’s why, rather than focus nearly singularly on solving this unprecedented crisis, Trump has instead attempted to take advantage of an understandably distracted public and media to accelerate his authoritarian, divisive, and dangerous agenda. From […]

May 13, 2020 – There is a growing disconnect between the kind of future people envision for a post-COVID-19 world and the fossil fuel world that politicians continue to lobby. After weeks of lockdown, with time to pause, breathe, rethink, and reevaluate, millions of people do not want to go back to the old normal. […]

May 13, 2020 – Every morning for the last two months, I’ve checked the news in my home state of Florida with growing concern. First came the photos of unemployed people lining up to file for benefits in person, denied access to an overburdened system. Then came the news that only a tiny percentage of unemployment claims were paid […]

May 12, 2020 – Speaker Pelosi’s new COVID-19 proposal seeks to address the unprecedented health and economic crises our nation faces with measures substantial enough both to provide strong support for the economy — and thereby lessen the severity and duration of the deep recession — and to ease hardship significantly for tens of millions […]

Betsy Gaines Quammen is a historian and conservationist, and the author of American Zion: Cliven Bundy, God and Public Lands in the West. May 11, 2020 – We are all now stuck within the procession of pandemic, left to view its spectacle through a kaleidoscope of cultural, philosophical, religious and biological understandings. Most Americans have responded […]

May 11, 2020 – Donald Trump is getting nervous. Internal polls show him losing in November unless the economy comes roaring back. But much of the American economy remains closed because of the pandemic. The number of infections and deaths continue to climb. Almost 3,000 Americans died last Friday alone, the deadliest day since the […]

May 8, 2020 – President Trump’s mismanagement of the Coronavirus response — and the resulting public health and economic crises that the nation faces — has obscured his administration’s broader ongoing national security malpractice. But it hasn’t gone away. Far from it. As all eyes are on Coronavirus, the Trump administration continues to mismanage and neglect […]

Washington, DC, May 8, 2020 –  The U.S. economy is tanking. Tens of thousands of Americans have lost their lives. President Trump has no plan and (while not wearing a mask) is washing his hands of his responsibility to lead the nation through the worst crisis of our lifetime. His reelection prospects are threatened.  So, […]

May 8, 2020 – To protect ourselves from the coronavirus, health officials repeatedly tell us to “wash our hands.” Many people can do that, but if you don’t have water in your home because it has been shut off by the water utility, you can’t perform this basic, life-saving function. We’ve previously written about the need for […]

May 6, 2020 – The following statement is from Laura Rivera, director of SPLC’s Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative (SIFI) following the first reported death of an individual in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody from COVID-19:    We mourn the death of this man and extend our heartfelt condolences to his family and loved ones. His senseless death should […]

May 6, 2020 – President Trump in recent days has attempted to downplay the volume of intelligence in early 2020 that warned him of the impending pandemic. The White House claimed that Trump received only two virus briefings in late January, apparently dismissing the more than one dozen warnings in Trump’s written President’s Daily Brief — and confirming, unsurprisingly, that Trump does […]