Letters: Trump's scapegoating of immigrants ignores the country's real problems
The Trump administration demonizes and dehumanizes immigrants as scapegoats for crime in America.
It justifies the attacks against ethnic and religious minorities and their removal without due process or evidence as the only way to protect us from gang violence and criminality.
But the statistical analyses show this is a sham.
A National Institute of Justice study published in September 2024 found that undocumented immigrants were arrested at half the rate of native born U.S. citizens for violent and drug crimes, and a quarter of the rate for property crimes
President Donald Trump ignores inconvenient facts while disregarding the law by gleefully doing nothing to facilitate the return of a wrongfully deported Maryland father to El Salvador, part of his scare narrative.
Facts matter. Immigrants pay taxes and perform work that most of us won't do.
Immigrants are not the problem.
Trump's false promises to lower prices, resolve Russia's war against Ukraine and his administration's destruction of agencies we need for good governance are the problems.
We must not be distracted by gratuitous attacks that do not address this country's needs.
David Wiseblood, San Francisco
Bill won't fix forests
Hiking through groves of redwoods adorned with bouquets of trillium along clear rivers ringing with birdsong from tiny hidden warblers, I felt at times like I was in paradise.
But then I'd come upon massive redwood stumps that were cut generations ago, still standing. The fragmented groves of ancient redwoods in our national parks often felt like tree museums.
Along the Smith River, Scott River and in the Trinity Alps, I was taken by the rugged landscapes and powerful waters, but overwhelmed by the miles of burned lands. Some places were recovering with green and wildflowers. Others were spoiled by the ravages of salvage logging.
If enacted, the Fix Our Forests Act loosens environmental protections and would lead to more logging.
We need our California representatives in Congress to oppose this bill and rally their colleagues to defeat it. If not, they will allow the beauty of our forests to be forever turned into the beasts of industry.
Cuts are misdirected
Regarding 'Newsom floats cuts to undocumented health care as budget deficit looms' (Politics, SFChronicle.com, May 14): Like it or not, undocumented workers are an important tax-paying part of the California economy.
Rather than punishing the most vulnerable by denying them the health care we all deserve, Gov. Gavin Newsom should focus on the real villain: President Donald Trump's budget, which seeks to strip Medicaid funding (the major source of Medi-Cal funds) to finance lower taxes for the rich.
Tom Miller, Oakland
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