Dear Editor:
Federal politicians are directly responsible for our immigration mess, they have refused to enforce our immigration laws.
I'm okay with "Dreamers" staying in our nation - after we get a wall, and change to a merit based immigration system, similar to Canada's. I'm okay with giving them a green card (after the above noted changes to our immigration policy) if they are not allowed to "cut in line" ahead of those who have previously applied for a green card. (For every Dreamer in the military two have lost their protected status due to criminal activity.)
The current issue with refugees makes me wonder if federal politicians need English lessons. Merriam-Webster defines temporary as "lasting for a limited time." Is "Temporary Protected Status" to difficult a concept to grasp?
The civil war in El Salvador ended in 1992. The last big earthquake there was in 2001, El Salvador was designated for TPS in 1992, 25 years later we still have over 250,000 Salvadorans here. Temporary?
Honduras was designated for TPS in 1999, after a hurricane. Eighteen years later we still have over 80,000 Hondurans here. Temporary?
Haiti was designated for TPS in 2010 after an earthquake. Seven years later and we still have over 40,000 Haitians here. Temporary?
In 2016 the U.N. ranked 188 nations by their "Human Development Index." It is a "standard of living" ranking. Forty-one nations are ranked as "medium human development" with a score range of 0.550-0.699. El Salvador (0.680), Honduras (0.625), Nepal (0.558) and Nicaragua (0.645), four TPS nations, fall in that range. (The Philippines also falls in this range with a score of 0.682)
Forty-one nations are ranked as "Low human development," with a score below 0.550. Syria (0.536), Sudan (0.490), Haiti (0.493), Yemen (0.482), Liberia (0.427) and South Sudan (0.418), six nations with TPS, fall in that range. (Afghanistan also falls in this range with a score of 0.479)
Norway (0.949) claims the top ranking, the Central African Republic (0.352) is at the bottom of the list.
These refugees need to go home and improve their home nations. Federal, state and local governments spend over $55,000 per household annually. The claim that illegals and/or refugees pay their way is ludicrous.