Letters: Route 66 series neglects to capture the beauty along the road in New Mexico
Let's not forget the great natural beauty of New Mexico and the wonderful restaurants, such as The Frontier near the university (the setting of some Tony Hillerman books) and Route 66 Diner for some serious diner food including chocolate malt, mile-high lemon meringue pie and patty melts.
There is a reason New Mexico is called 'The Land of Enchantment.'I am so disappointed that the Tribune so obviously politicized its series on Route 66 with this entry on June 22, 'Feeling less at home at an Oklahoma protest.' It turns an otherwise so interesting and meaningful series of stories, dear to me from my family's road trips in the 1960s to Arizona and beyond, into a biased article. I will not continue to read the series in future weeks.Could I address letter writer Joanna Summa's preposterous reason ('Moral code is missing,' June 22) for trying to Christianize public schools? In a nutshell, her letter says that some people support a mentally disturbed individual who is accused of murder, so we need to hang a religious document in public schools so kids will learn not to kill. Presumably, it follows that if this individual and his equally disturbed followers had seen the commandments on their second grade classroom wall, things would have been different.
Does she really not think that the vast majority of children know they aren't supposed to kill anybody? If so, then she is supposing an utter failure in parenting. This is the kind of thing a child learns at home from the very beginning and, if in a churchgoing family, probably in church services. Hanging Christian propaganda in classrooms is not going to help at all.
This is the same shtick the religious right has tried for years to turn our public schools into Christian indoctrination centers, completely contrary to our Constitution.Abhinav Anne, in his op-ed 'Ending LGBTQ+ youth support for the 988 hotline puts Chicago teens at risk' (June 25), shows strong wisdom and maturity beyond his years as he advocates for teens in genuine need of this hotline service. These teens are in need of being met where they are, and Anne states the heart of the issue in making the point that 'removing a tailored option doesn't level the playing field — it erases it.'
To keep the 'Press 3' option would mean not just the teens keeping their voice but also those who are trained, able and willing to be there for them and offer the genuine understanding, empathy and insight that is needed.
I ask that those in charge of the decision-making keep this option for those who need it; they, too, would be on the side of advocacy.New York City just had an election using ranked choice voting. I've been reading a lot about how so many people would like that system to be used here. Be careful what you wish for.
I'm old enough to remember when Harold Washington became the first Black mayor of Chicago. He would not have been elected if we had ranked choice voting. Jane Byrne and Richard M. Daley split the white vote in the Democratic primary, and their voters would have picked the other white candidate if there had been ranked choice.In his op-ed 'Northwestern needs better leadership to fight back against Donald Trump' (June 24), professor Luis A. Nunes Amaral writes: 'Graduate workers received a salary raise of approximately 25%. Federal grants would have helped absorb the bulk of those costs — meaning that the (university's) financial concerns arise not from the raise but from the actions of the (Donald) Trump administration.'
How nice it must be for raises at a university to be paid for by someone else. As onetime British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said: 'The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money.'
How obtuse it is to use an example that proves the opposite of the author's point. 'Of course, raises don't increase costs,' this professor appears to think. He should not be allowed within 300 feet of students or faculty.The closing of the Gale Street Inn and the demise of many other restaurants due to staffing shortages reveal how important immigration is to our nation's economic stability. There are estimates that immigrants added about 5 million workers from 2020 to 2024, which makes it clear that our native labor force cannot make up for worker shortages if U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement continues its zealous quest to track down all immigrants, including those who are law-abiding.
Most immigrants, whether or not here legally, are not criminals. They are responsible for much of our economic growth, and they pay taxes. In addition to restaurants, their labor is extremely important in agriculture, service industries, day care, meatpacking, construction, hospitality, health care and home care.
Even if native-born Americans were willing to handpick strawberries and tomatoes and butcher animals in meatpacking plants, there are simply not enough of them to do the work that is needed.
Those who support and cheer every time ICE instills fear or conducts a raid should not complain when their favorite eatery closes. Or when scarcity occurs and prices skyrocket due to labor shortages in vital economic sectors.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Chicago Tribune
2 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
‘Dehumanizing': Inside the Broadview ICE facility where immigrants sleep on cold concrete
The sounds of weeping mothers curled on cold concrete floors echoed through the walls at the federal immigration processing center in Broadview, keeping Gladis Chavez awake for most of the night. The cries came in waves, she recalled. Quiet whimpers, choked gasps and occasional prayers. About children left behind and fears of what would happen next. Most of the women who had been detained at a routine check-in June 4 at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Chicago now had nothing but each other and a few jackets they shared to fight off the nightly chill that seeped into their bones in a nondescript brick building just off the Eisenhower Expressway. By day three, Chavez said, her body ached with exhaustion. On day four, she and some of the other women were finally transferred out. The west suburban processing center is designed to hold people for no more than 12 hours before transferring them to a formal immigration detention facility. It has no beds, let alone any covers, Chavez said. They were not offered showers or hot food. No toothbrushes or feminine products. And certainly, Chavez recalled, those detained had no answers from immigration authorities about what would happen next. An investigation by the Chicago Tribune found that immigration detainees such as Chavez have been held for days at the processing center, a two-story building that is designed as a temporary way station until detainees can be transferred to jails out of state. For busier periods in June, data shows the typical detainee was held two or three days — far longer than the five or so hours typical in years past. The findings, which come from a Tribune analysis of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data obtained and shared by the research group Deportation Data Project, show that the federal agency has routinely violated ICE's internal guidelines, which say the facility shouldn't hold people for more than 12 hours. Chavez became one of hundreds of people held in the facility for longer than 12 hours under the latest crackdown. Data showed that at least three people spent six or more days there. 'There were nearly 30 other women there in a single big room. Most were mothers who couldn't stop crying. The group of men were in a separate room,' Chavez said in Spanish, speaking to the Tribune in a Zoom interview from Honduras. In the group, she said, she met women who were nursing, pregnant women and elderly women. 'I never want any of my children, or any other person to go through this. It's dehumanizing, they treat us worse than criminals,' Chavez said. ICE, for its part, declined to respond to questions about the Tribune's findings and has not released its own data calculating how often it has held people in Broadview. But on the agency's website, it says it employs 'a robust, multilevel oversight and compliance program' to ensure each facility follows a 'strict set of detention standards.' A spokesperson for ICE reportedly told ABC 7 that: 'Any accusations that detainees are treated inhumanely in any way are categorically false. … There are occasions where detainees might need to stay at the Broadview office longer than the anticipated administrative processing time. While these instances are a rarity, detainees in such situations are given ample food, regular access to phones, showers and legal representation as well as medical care when needed.' Few can get inside to see what's going on, frustrating immigrant rights advocates and their allies in Congress. In mid-June, as the facility was cycling through detainees such as Chavez, four Democratic members of Congress were denied entry into the Broadview facility during an unannounced visit. On Wednesday, a dozen Democratic members of Congress who have been blocked from making oversight visits at immigration detention centers filed a federal lawsuit against President Donald Trump's administration that seeks to ensure they are granted entry into the facilities, including Broadview, even without prior notice. In Illinois, immigrant rights advocates are urging Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul to investigate the Broadview facility's ownership structure and contractual agreements with federal immigration authorities. They're also calling for a full site inspection and for the state to use all available legal tools to shut the facility down. State and local officials, however, say there's little they can do to force the U.S. government to change how it operates a federal facility. The longer detention times in Broadview have come as the Trump administration has pushed a massive boost in arrests while scrambling to build out the infrastructure to handle them, creating logistical logjams that can be particularly felt in Illinois, which has forbid local jails from holding ICE detainees. That means anyone arrested in the Chicago area must be sent out of state, once they're processed by ICE. So, for now, that can mean a small processing facility in the western suburbs — one that rarely held anyone overnight during the final years of President Joe Biden's administration — can end up warehousing dozens of detainees as they await ICE to move them. State Sen. Omar Aquino, a Chicago Democrat, was the primary sponsor of the Illinois Way Forward Act, which also limited local jails from contracting with ICE. He did not respond to questions regarding the unintentional hardships detainees are now facing because of the law. Instead, he said he 'stand(s) by the progress we have made in solidifying Illinois as a welcoming state, where immigrant families can live without fear and raise their children in a safe and supportive environment.' Chavez, who had been an immigration advocate in Chicago for nearly a decade, was deported on July 13 back to her native Honduras after spending more than a month in different ICE facilities in Illinois and Kentucky. She said she still feels traumatized by a system that separated her from her children and grandchildren while causing emotional and physical pain. Her ankles are still swollen from being shackled as she moved from one facility to another flown back to Honduras. 'I'm trying to heal both emotionally and physically,' she said. In 2023, the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of ICE, described the Broadview facility as a '12-hour hold facility with the typical stay of approximately five hours,' with a DHS auditor noting that 'absent exceptional circumstances, no detainee should be housed in a holding facility for longer than 12 hours.' When the members of Congress attempted to visit the site in June, Rep. Delia Ramirez noted, in a speech on the House floor, that ICE had posted a sign saying that the agency only 'processes' arrestees there and 'does not house aliens at these locations.' Yet, ICE's own data would suggest otherwise. The Tribune examined an ICE dataset, provided through the Deportation Data Project, that recorded dates and times of everyone detained at an ICE facility across the country, from September 2023 through June 26. The data had limitations. ICE recorded a time, down to the minute, when each person was checked in and out, but the Tribune found that the logs sometimes recorded people leaving Broadview only a minute or two before entering another facility hundreds of miles away, suggesting ICE may not have properly logged when someone left. To adjust for that, the Tribune computed earlier times people may have left Broadview, based on reasonable travel times from Broadview to the next ICE facilities — calculated through online mapping software and more plausible entries by ICE for others sent the same places. Even adjusting down the length of potential stays in Broadview, the analysis found a clear jump in how long detainees were held there, particularly earlier this summer. The median time logged for someone — meaning that half had shorter stays and half had longer — jumped beyond 12 hours for people booked into Broadview by mid-June. The median time continued rising as the month continued, eclipsing 24 hours for the typical detainee before they left Broadview, and then two days and sometimes three days. Even when the figures were averaged out over seven days — to smooth out any abnormally busy or slow days — the median stay in Broadview approached 48 hours for detainees, or four times as long as the 12-hour ICE guideline. While the ICE data doesn't name those detained, Chavez's biographical data and description of her journey through ICE facilities matched what was logged for one person. The log describes a Honduran woman as a widow, born the same year as her, with no criminal record but a deportation order issued in January, who was booked into the Broadview facility the morning of June 4 and not transferred out until more than three days later. The Tribune analysis found that ICE booked more arrestees on June 4 — 88 — than any on other day covered by the data. They joined another 23 who had been shipped that day to Broadview from facilities in Wisconsin and Indiana that house ICE detainees, as ICE shuffled detainees across the country. That made it the busiest day for bookings in Broadview through late June, as ICE ramped up enforcement in the Chicago area, and fueled the long stays in a place where advocates and family members of the detained say people have been held without basic necessities or medical care. In the federal government's 2023 audit of the facility, it confirmed the facility has six holding cells — two large ones, two smaller ones and two single-occupancy — with the four largest cells each having a toilet for detainees to share, as well as 'a place to sit while awaiting processing.' The audit said the facility lacked a medical unit, medical staff, food facilities or food staff. 'While the two large holding rooms are equipped with a single shower; these showers are inoperable, and the space is currently used for storage,' the 2023 audit noted. Marina Lopez Perez also was detained on June 4 after she showed up to a check-in with ICE in its South Loop facility. The Guatemala native spent three days in Broadview before she was taken to Grayson Country Detention Center in Kentucky, where she awaits her release or deportation. She left behind three children, two of them U.S. citizens, and a husband. She calls when she can, said her husband, who asked that his name be withheld, fearing ICE retaliation. Though he first tried to shield their two younger kids from the truth, telling them that their mother was at work, time, fear and reality that she may be deported, caught up to him. Now the children know, though they don't fully understand, that their mother is in jail. 'There are times when I hear her crying through the phone,' Lopez's husband said. 'I know it is not easy to be in there.' Their older son, a 13-year-old, whose name the Tribune is withholding at the family's request, said he worries constantly about his mother, especially after learning about the complaints of conditions at facilities such as Broadview. 'There are nights when I can't sleep thinking about my mom,' the teen said. 'I wonder if she's sleeping, or if she even got to eat.' Immigrant rights advocates complain that such conditions not only violate detainees' human rights, but also ICE's own policies. 'It's overflowed. They're not able to take people out within the times they are supposed to,' said Brandon Lee, with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. In July, advocates outlined their concerns about the Broadview facility's violations of state law in a letter to Raoul and Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke, asking for their support. But both elected officials said that they do not possess direct investigating authority over ICE. Raoul added that only Congress could step in, while noting that reports of conditions at Broadview, 'while disturbing, are consistent with the deplorable conditions we have seen at federal ICE facilities around the nation.' Fred Tsao, senior policy counsel at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, agreed that state law cannot force changes at federally operated facilities like Broadview. He said the group is pushing Congress for more oversight of ICE operations, which the Republican-controlled body infused with a significant boost in cash to ramp up immigration enforcement, including building new detention centers. Some advocates want Broadview shut down altogether. 'The 'facilities' also use torture-based tactics to create an even more hostile environment inside for immigrants — from lights on all the time that don't let them sleep, lack of medical care, lack of mental health support from officers — to the point that individuals detained had to create networks of emotional support,' said Antonio Gutierrez, co-founder and current Strategic Coordinator for Organized Communities Against Deportations. Without oversight, federal agencies may get away with violating their own rules and with that the rights of immigrants, said Ramirez, who represents Illinois' 3rd Congressional District. In a speech on the House floor June 25, Ramirez noted the irony that ICE insisted the Broadview facility was a processing center, and not a detention center, so it didn't have to allow members of Congress inside. 'Let me be very clear. Just because something isn't named a detention facility doesn't mean this administration isn't going to use it as one,' she said at the time. 'If people are detained there, it is a detention facility, period.' For now, the families of detained loved ones endure — whether it is Chavez back in Honduras, thousands of miles away from her three children, or Lopez, who is only a couple of hundred of miles away from her three children, but still unable to see them. Even if Lopez's husband wanted to take the children to see their mother in detention, the trip would be too difficult, he said. The family lives in north suburban Lake County and Lopez is in Kentucky. Chavez said she is still trying to comprehend how she ended up detained, sleeping on the cold floor in Broadview, shackled and deprived of basic necessities. 'We prayed. Sometimes we braided each other's hair. We cried,' recalling her detention in Broadview and Kentucky, Chavez said. Her lawyer said they will continue to appeal her asylum case from Honduras.
The Hill
a day ago
- The Hill
Prosecutors say kids at a camp were sickened by sedatives in candy. A 76-year-old has been charged
LONDON (AP) — A 76-year-old man appeared in a court in central England on Saturday to face child cruelty charges after several boys at a summer camp were sickened by what prosecutors say was candy laced with sedatives. Jon Ruben was ordered detained until a hearing on Aug. 29. He did not enter a plea during the brief hearing at Leicester Magistrates' Court. Police say they received a report on Sunday that children had fallen sick at Stathern Lodge, a converted farmhouse with a sports hall and catering facilities about 120 miles (190 kilometers) north of London. Eight boys between 8 and 11 and one adult were taken to a hospital as a precaution. All were later discharged. Ruben was arrested on Monday at a pub near the lodge. Ruben, whose home address is about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the lodge, faces three charges of 'wilfully assaulting, ill-treating, neglecting, abandoning or exposing children in a manner likely to cause them unnecessary suffering or injury to health,' relating to three boys at the camp. The lodge is owned by Braithwaite Gospel Trust, a Christian charity. Police stressed that the owners 'are independent from those people who use or hire the lodge and are not connected to the incident.'
Chicago Tribune
a day ago
- Chicago Tribune
Former local writer fatally shot after Schaumburg wedding remembered as ‘defender of those who had no voice.'
A former local newspaper reporter allegedly shot and killed by her father-in-law after a family wedding in Schaumburg will be remembered by loved ones as a compassionate journalist, accomplished public relations expert and 'defender of those who had no voice,' according to her obituary. Family members and friends will gather Saturday for funeral services for Christine Moyer, 45, of Galena, Ohio, a public relations official for the north suburban-based global health care company Abbott who once worked as a reporter for the Aurora Beacon-News, Elgin Courier-News and other newspapers. A visitation will be held at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church, 845 W. Main St. in West Dundee, followed by a funeral Mass at 11:30 a.m. Moyer will be cremated and her inurnment will take place privately in Ohio, according to her obituary. 'She just had a real heart to advocate, especially for those whose voices weren't being heard,' said Pastor Mark Albrecht of NorthBridge Church in Antioch, which Moyer used to attend with her family. Moyer is survived by her husband Michael Schmidt, their 14-year-old daughter Abra and 9-year-old son Elliott. She was preceded in death by their child Gabriel, who was 'born into Heaven,' according to the obituary. 'Christine was Christian; she was a child of God, a woman of faith. Feverishly studying God's word,' the obituary said. 'She selflessly gave to others every moment of her life. She exemplified Christ.' Moyer suffered a gunshot wound to the head July 25 outside a Marriott hotel in Schaumburg, where she and her husband were guests at the wedding of her husband's cousin, along with her father-in-law and other relatives, according to the Schaumburg Police Department. The alleged gunman, 76-year-old Roland Schmidt of Stillman Valley near Rockford, followed Moyer outside to the parking lot after the reception. As Moyer headed to her car, her father-in-law pulled out a firearm and shot her in the back of her head, police said. She was taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge where she died that night. A handgun was recovered from the scene, according to police. Roland Schmidt, who was charged with first-degree murder, was angry that Moyer recently served divorce paperwork to his son, according to police. Roland Schmidt had been divorced from his son's mother since 1999, a separation that 'was not amicable,' and he did not have a close relationship with his ex-wife or his children, police said. Moyer's sister-in-law and her sister-in-law's husband, as well as another witness and off-duty police officer, were able to disarm the father-in-law, police said. There had been no arguments or conversation about the divorce at the wedding, according to authorities. The couple married in 2009 and lived in the Chicago area until August 2024, when they moved to Galena, Ohio, court documents said. Court documents show Moyer filed for divorce in early July. Moyer's husband did not return Tribune requests for comment. Roland Schmidt allegedly told authorities he planned the shooting a week prior to the wedding and had intended to take his own life afterward; police said he asked his son for forgiveness as he was being taken away in a squad car. Moyer was a loving mother and devoted Christian, as well as an avid reader and writer, according to her obituary. 'She was loved,' the obituary said. 'She will be deeply missed.' After graduating from Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania, Moyer earned a master's degree in journalism from Boston University and a master's degree in public health from Loyola University Chicago. Earlier in her career, she worked as a reporter at the Courier-Journal, where she covered education, as well as other newspapers in Louisiana and the Washington, D.C., area, according to her LinkedIn page. 'Christine had such enthusiasm for her job and the craft of writing and story-telling that she quickly advanced to become one of our best writers,' one of her Courier-News editors said in a recommendation on her LinkedIn page. As a reporter at the Beacon-News, her work earned awards from the National Federation of Press Women, the Chicago Headline Club and the Illinois Press Association. Heather Eidson, a friend and former colleague at the Beacon-News, recalled that Moyer was eager to hone her craft and convey important stories to readers. They spent about a year working together on a story sharing the experience of a single mother of three children who was living in Hesed House in Aurora, as she trained for a job and then moved into more permanent housing. 'It was a really sensitive story. Christine was a compassionate reporter. She cared very deeply for her sources and she was just a very kind person,' Eidson said. 'She really conveyed that dignity and respect to others when she was reporting on them and what they were going through, in their struggles and in their lives.' In a 2007 story 'The comeback kid,' Moyer chronicled the first game back on the field for an Oswego high school football player who was severely injured in a car crash that killed five teens, a tragic DUI case that rocked the community earlier that year. 'For Josh, the game meant more than the start of the season. It was the fulfillment of a dream. Six months earlier, he lay unmoving in a hospital bed, a survivor of a car crash that killed five of his classmates,' Moyer wrote. 'When Josh couldn't walk, he was consumed with thoughts of football. In his dreams, it was always the team's first game of the year and he was always dressed to play.' In a first-person 'From the Storyteller' piece, Moyer relayed what it was like to write about volunteers who buy birthday presents for children residing at an Aurora shelter. 'A young girl who then lived at Hesed House told me about him. She was hoping she'd get a digital camera on her next birthday. Nothing fancy, she assured me. Just something to take pictures with …' Moyer recounted in 2009. 'Astounded by this support, I ventured out to meet some of these selfless volunteers and find out what compels them to give so much to those who have so little.' For the past 11 years, Moyer was a 'proud employee of Abbott,' according to her obituary. 'More than a decade ago the last newspaper I ever wrote for folded. And just like that, I was a journalist without a job. Today, I lead the external communications strategy that spotlights why Abbott — one of the world's leading health care companies — is a great place to work,' Moyer said on her LinkedIn page. 'I'm a mentor, relationship builder, and trusted public relations advisor, and in my spare time I give back as best I can, focused on giving a voice to those who don't have one.' Scott Stoffel, a spokesman at Abbott who worked closely with Moyer, said the company is 'heartbroken over this tragedy.' 'Christine was a beloved colleague for more than a decade and we are devastated by her loss,' he said. 'Our hearts go out to her children.' Moyer also volunteered with an English as a Second Language program at NorthBridge Church, helping 'non-native English speakers in our community perfect their language abilities and skills,' according to her LinkedIn page. Albrecht, the pastor, said Moyer attended NorthBridge with her husband and children for many years before the family moved to Ohio. He recalled that Moyer volunteered with the church children's ministry and also provided pro bono public relations expertise a few years ago when the NorthBridge spearheaded a project to build Treehouse Community Playground in Antioch, which opened last year; the 6,600-square-foot play space was unique in the area because it was designed to be ADA-compliant and inclusive for children with disabilities. 'She and her husband lost a child early in their marriage and out of that came this great compassion for doing things that were helpful to kids,' Albrecht said. The pastor added that NorthBridge Church is grieving for Moyer and her family. 'She was very easy to get to know and connect with. You wouldn't know, from a first meeting with her, how accomplished she was in the corporate world because she just had a very humble and unassuming way about her,' he added. 'She had a genuine heart for the Lord and for Jesus.'
