Breonna Taylor's aunt arrested outside courthouse as cop in deadly raid gets 33 months
Bianca Austin was one of four people taken into custody as protesters jumped on cars outside the Gene Snyder Federal Building ahead of Monday's sentencing of ex-Louisville cop Brett Hankison, who was found guilty of violating Taylor's civil rights last year, according to USA Today.
Louisville police responded to reports of protesters causing problems in the street — and when they arrived, found Austin in the middle of the intersection 'clapping her hands' and blocking vehicles, according to a police report obtained by the outlet.
They said Austin approached them while 'clapping and yelling in their face,' the report stated.
5 Taylor, a Black woman, was killed by police in 2020 after they executed a no-knock warrant during a botched raid of her home.
Courtesy of Family of Breonna Taylor
Other protesters were filmed jumping on cars, video from the scene shows.
'What we saw today in front of the courthouse in the street was not safe, acceptable or legal,' Lousivlle Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson Matthew Sanders said in a statement. 'Creating confrontation, kicking vehicles or otherwise creating an unsafe environment will not be tolerated.'
Austin was charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing a highway, according to court records. She is scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday.
Hankison, who was fired from the Louisville Police Department after Taylor was killed, was found guilty last year of violating Taylor's civil rights after he blindly fired 10 rounds into Taylor's apartment while police executed a no-knock warrant raid — none of which actually struck Taylor.
5 The U.S. Justice Department has asked a federal judge to sentence former Louisville police officer Brett Hankison, who was convicted of violating Breonna Taylor's civil rights, to serve just one day in prison.
via REUTERS
He was sentenced to 33 months in prison — even though the Justice Department recommended he just get one day in prison.
'It wasn't justice, but I got essentially what I started out for, which was jail time,' Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, told CNN after the sentencing, adding that she found the Trump administration's suggestion insulting.
'Breonna never stood a chance in that courtroom,' Palmer added.
5 Taylor's death, as well as the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, sparked mass racial justice protests around the country.
5 According to the court filing, the one-day sentence would amount to time served since Hankison would 'get credit for the day he was booked and made his initial appearance.'
Louisville PD
5 Crime scene pictures taken by Louisville Metro Police investigators.
Louisville Metro Police
Hankison was not immediately taken into custody and will remain free until the federal Bureau of Prisons decides where he will serve time.
Taylor was killed by police in 2020 after they executed a no-knock warrant while conducting a raid on her boyfriend's home.
Her boyfriend, who was carrying a legally owned firearm and thought the couple were being robbed, shot at police, prompting them to fire back 22 times into the apartment.
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USA Today
6 hours ago
- USA Today
Farmers are facing a fork on Trump's immigration highway. So what's next?
Farmers say few native–born residents will pick fruit or tend cows. The agriculture worker visa program can be costly, burdensome and limited. And they say Congress has failed to act for years. For Candice Lyall, cherry harvest is always a race against the clock. Eastern Washington is famous for its cherries, and in the fourth-generation farmer's lush orchards, not far from Columbia River, there's just a short window when they are the perfect ripeness. Wait too long and they are too soft for sale. And they must be picked by hand. Lots of them. Finding those hands locally can be a challenge. Like other growers, some of her workers are foreign-born, whose presence is reflected in the Hispanic restaurants in the nearby 3,300-resident town of Mattawa. But this summer the harvest coincided with President Donald Trump's mass deportation sweeps. Rumors swirled of roadway checkpoints. More than 100 workers who started Lyall's harvest dwindled to 30 by the second week, leading her farm to struggle to get cherries picked in time. Some were picked too late, she said, but the financial hit to her farm was likely to be far less than what some other growers experienced. 'There's a lot of farms that didn't pick because they didn't have enough labor,' she said. Lyall is a Trump supporter in a conservative farming region. She favors stricter border security because of worries of drug cartels. But she wants to see a path toward a stable workforce. 'There needs to be some solutions put on the table,' Lyall told USA TODAY. Across the country, Trump's immigration raids have roiled farms and farming communities – with cases of worker shortages and fears of unpicked crops. And it has fueled growing calls for the Trump administration to protect agricultural workers critical to the U.S. food supply. Of the 2.6 million people working on U.S. farms, about 42% lack legal status, according to the Department of Agriculture and other estimates. Farmers say few native–born residents will pick fruit or tend cows. The country's foreign agriculture worker visa program can be costly, burdensome and limited. And farmers say Congress has failed for decades to pass comprehensive immigration reforms. Those long-standing struggles are now compounded by the lurking presence of Trump's masked immigration forces as harvest season approaches or is underway. Earlier this month, raids on farms in California left hundreds detained, and soon after, a group of farmworkers in California held a three-day strike and called for boycotts. At stake are potential disruptions to the U.S. food supply and higher consumer costs. 'Farm employers are holding their breath, trying to keep operations afloat without knowing whether their workforce will show up tomorrow — or stay away for fear of a raid,' said Ben Tindall, head of the Save Family Farming advocacy group, based in Washington state. The Trump administration in June suspended farm enforcement but then reversed that decision. More recently, Trump has cited the importance of farm labor and said his administration would look into ways for farmworkers to 'be here legally, they can pay taxes and everything.' Other administration officials, including border czar Tom Holman, said there would be no 'amnesty' but cited ongoing discussions about policy changes related to farmworkers. A bill in Congress would create a legal pathway for longtime workers and streamline worker visas. The push for changes comes amid signs of a shift in public attitudes reflected in a recent Gallup poll that found a record-high of 79% of U.S. adults say immigration is good for the country, while only 35% said they approve of Trump's handling of the issue. Manuel Cunha, the president of the Nisei Farmers League, which represents 500 farmers employing about 75,000 California farmworkers, said he's hopeful that policies will change. For now, he said, workers in places like the San Joaquin Valley are holding steady despite raids that have caused temporary shortages. Still, farmers are on edge, knowing it could change at any moment. Why foreign-born workers are critical to farmers In Lincoln County, Wisconsin, where the rural landscape of pastures and fields is dotted with barns and silos, Hans Breitenmoser's parents emigrated here in 1968 from Switzerland to raise dairy cows on a small farm. He grew up amid the daily rhythms of feeding and milking. When the farm grew, they had to hire more workers. But they could find few native-born residents willing to take the jobs in the sparsely populated area. And over time, fewer younger people were sticking around the farms. Now, the 56-year-old relies on about a dozen foreign-born workers, mostly from Mexico, to operate the 460-cow farm, not far from a shuttered church with peeling paint about five miles outside a town of 9,000 residents. 'If it wouldn't be for immigrants, my dairy farm wouldn't run,' he said. In recent months, dairy farms in Texas reported absenteeism while ICE has detained or deported people at dairy farms in New York and Vermont, where one Trump-voting farmer told a news outlet he didn't think deportations would impact the industry's workers. Dairies are particularly vulnerable to labor shortages because cows need daily care to survive, Brietenmoser said, and cannot be temporarily shut down like a construction site or restaurant. 'Am I concerned about it? Absolutely,' said Breitenmoser, who said he was among a minority in Lincoln County who did not support Trump in 2024. 'They don't get fed and they don't get watered, and they don't get milked and they don't get cleaned up after, they will die.' Across the nation today, about 70% of workers in the U.S. farm sector are foreign born, according to the Federal Reserve of Kansas City. The National Milk Producers Federation says milk prices could nearly double if the U.S. dairy industry loses its foreign-born workforce, the group said. 'The uncertainty that undergirds agricultural labor and immigration in the U.S. continues to harm workers and their families, farm employers, rural communities and national food security,' according to the federation. Farmers typically hire workers with documentation such as Social Security cards or permits the government says must 'reasonably appear to be genuine.' The government's E-Verify system, required in some places, isn't foolproof. Breitenmoser argues Trump's political rhetoric painting immigrants as criminals and invaders, when most are workers filling jobs no one else will, is a self-defeating strategy. 'We've built an economy that relies on people, but we have a public policy that demonizes them. And to my way of thinking that just doesn't make any sense,' he said. 'American farming cannot survive without foreign-born staff.' The dairy farmer noted that 'we had immigration reform in front of the Congress prior to the election, but because all of the Republicans were scared of Donald Trump, it didn't happen.' The solution, he said, is 'stupid simple:' Accept the realities of farm labor. Hand out more work visas. And create pathways to vet longtime workers who need legal work permits. He hopes the recent turmoil will lead to long-needed changes. 'Somebody's going to drive through McDonald's to buy a freaking latte and a hamburger. And guess where that comes from? It comes from my farm. And it doesn't happen magically. It takes human beings, be they brown, Black, White, green or otherwise, to get the job done,' he said. 'And that's what our public policy should reflect.' Workers face stains, worry In a Colorado agricultural area northeast of Denver, Maria has worked in fields of watermelon, pumpkins and tomatoes for years. But not now. The 56-year-old, who didn't want to use her full name because she doesn't have legal status, emigrated from Chihuahua, Mexico 20 years ago to escape violence and find better pay. Jobs on farms are hot, grueling and physically challenging. But some farmworkers can earn in one hour what they'd make in a full day back in Mexico. She said she sees an ICE presence in her part of Colorado. One friend's brother was detained on the street earlier this year. Her husband is still working in a dairy to make ends meet, but she said some farms have had to look for workers out of state. For now they want to stick it out. Their lives are here. They have children and U.S. citizen grandchildren who live in the United States and are concerned about them. 'There's a lot of anxiety about, you know, grandmother, are they going to take you away?' she said. Many have reluctantly returned to work after raids that have taken place in places like California's San Joaquin Valley for financial reasons, said Teresa Romero, head of United Farm Workers. 'It is a little misconception, assuming that workers are not going back to work. Some workers are, of course, scared of what could happen,' she said. 'They might be scared for a day or so, but they go back to work. They need their jobs and they need to support their families.' Romero said the crackdown is also impacting the communities in which they live and work. Many are staying inside and not going to parks, school functions, churches and restaurants. In raids earlier this month at cannabis farms in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, immigration agents descended on Glass House Farms near Camarillo and in Carpinteria. They clashed with protesters and detained more than 200 farmworkers. A Mexican farmworker, Jaime Alanís Garcia, 57, died after falling from a greenhouse roof he'd climbed atop in an alleged attempt to evade officers, according to multiple reports, 'The farmworkers detained in these raids are clearly in the United States to fill jobs that employers cannot otherwise fill,' U.S. Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Thousand Oaks, said in a letter to federal officials. 'Their undocumented status is not by choice, but a direct result of Congress' ongoing failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform that would allow a sufficient number of workers into the country and provide a viable pathway to citizenship.' That's what Gabriel, a 42-year-old from Puebla, Mexico, who didn't want to use his name because he lacks legal status and fears detention, would like to see, too. The farmwork in California's Central Valley has lived in the U.S. for 25 years. He has worked in fields of crops from eggplant to pumpkin, waking up at 4 a.m. and earning $16.50 an hour. He said the majority of his fellow workers are also immigrants without papers and are still working, but some are considering going home. He blames past and current administrations for failing to deliver on immigration reform. He said some longtime workers were angry at former President Joe Biden for enacting more legal pathways to migrate and not focusing on legalizing the status of longtime workers. 'Let workers work,' he said. 'These are people who help feed the country and pay taxes.' Even legally present farmworkers are uneasy. ICE officials have argued they don't need probable cause to detain people and the agency could deport people with just six hours' notice. Maurico Sol, an H-2A worker who supervises dozens of fellow visa holders on a farm that spans Idaho and Oregon, said some colleagues have asked if it's safe to go to Walmart on weekends. He advised them to always carry their passport and visa. 'I've also heard people that say, well, maybe this is going to be my last year,' he said. 'Because it feels different … Even when we are in a good space here, where it's not happening a lot, you feel like, eh, we don't know. We don't want to go out. Because maybe they're going to confuse me if they see me in the mall and I'm going to be chained for, I don't know, 48 hours, or maybe they're going to deport me even though I have papers.' A search for a solution Sol works for Shay Myers, a farmer whose onions grow in fields not far from where the Snake River separates Oregon and Idaho. The third-generation farmer operates Owyhee Produce, which grows one in every 20 onions consumed in America. Myers, 45, is also TikTok influencer with 692,000 followers and posts videos about his farm and the intricacies of agriculture. But lately the Republican farmer has been highlighting his mostly foreign-born laborers – from Mexico, Central America, Peru and Colombia – who he says are critical. The majority of his workers, which can number 350 during harvests, are here on H-2A visas. While such workers represent about 13% of the nation's farmworkers, the number of certified H-2A workers grew by 64.7% between 2017 and 2022. Meanwhile, the share of unauthorized workers has dropped to about 42% from from 55% in 2001. But it's also a bureaucratic and expensive program, he said. Farmers have to prove no domestic workers are available or willing to do the job. They provide housing and adhere to wage-premiums meant to keep the program from pushing down wages of U.S. residents who do similar jobs, and must follow rules such as overtime that differ among states. And it's time-limited. Immigrant Workers Are Essential. #foryou #fyp #foryoupage #farmlife #farm #farming Labor groups also criticize the H-2A visa program, saying it often requires workers to stick with one employer which makes them vulnerable to wage theft or poor housing. Myers said that's not the case at his farm. He grew up and went to school in the area with undocumented families. And today his children do, too. 'We lose from every angle. The right-wingers come at us … 'You won't give jobs to Americans,' Myers said. 'And then the left wing side of the discussion is, well, all you do is bring H-2A workers and they work for you like slaves.' He, too, wants a more flexible worker program and creating a path to legal status for undocumented workers here for 10 years and longer. He said the deportations have proved a problem both ethically for farm families and economically for the industry. 'Let's find a solution,' he said on one video. Earlier this month, Trump suggested in Iowa – a leading corn and pork producer that relies heavily on migrant workers – that his administration would seek to permit some migrants without legal status to stay on farms, the Des Moines Register, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported. "If a farmer's willing to vouch for these people, in some way, Kristi, I think we're going to have to just say that's going to be good, right?" he said, referencing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem who was with him on the Iowa trip. "You know, we're going to be good with it. Because we don't want to do it where we take all of the workers off the farms. We want the farms to do great like they're doing right now." U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins cited plans to make the H-2A program 'cheaper, more efficient and more effective for those farmers.' The United Farm Workers favors paths to legal status for those already here over simply expanding the guestworker program for new arrivals, who they say would still be more prone to labor abuses. In Congress, Republican U.S. Reps. María Elvira Salazar of Florida, and Veronica Escobar of Texas introduced the DIGNITY Act. Among its many provisions is a seven-year earned legal status program allowing undocumented immigrants to live and work legally, with renewable status based on good conduct and restitution. "We have 10 million people or more working in construction, hospitality, agriculture, dairy, fisheries, slaughterhouses who are undocumented but are not criminals," Salazar said at a news conference. But House Speaker Mike Johnson told the Wall Street Journal that immigration overhauls would face an uphill battle. Rollins has also suggested that the country could fill jobs with Americans who will face Medicaid work requirements, something farmers immediately shot down. Farming groups call for realism Cunha, head of Nisei Farmers League, was among those very blunt about that idea: 'That's just not going to work,' he said. He knows firsthand. In 1998, during President Bill Clinton's Welfare-to-Work push, Cunha helped launch an effort in 10 California counties to recruit welfare recipients and unemployed workers to help fill tens of thousands of farmworker jobs. People would be aided with child care, transportation and training. Just 500 people applied. And only three took jobs. None of them lasted more than two days, he said. Crops were lost. 'It was a total disaster,' he said. A similar result took place in North Carolina, according to a 2013 report by the Partnership for a New American Economy and the Center for Global Development. When North Carolina had more than 489,000 unemployed residents, a growers association offered 6,500 jobs. Of 245 domestic workers hired, only seven lasted the entire season. It's not likely he contended that higher wages alone would have Americans flocking to the jobs, he argued. Not only can the work be physically grueling or dangerous, Cunha said it is not the unskilled work that many people assume. It takes experience and skill to prune a fruit tree or know which fruits to pick now and which to return for later. At a recent farm training in California that included topics like heat illness, Cunha said workers instead were full of questions about avoiding run-ins with ICE. Should they drive different routes or not wear hats and bandanas? One asked if he should shave his beard to look less like a farmworker. For now, he said, as the area's remaining harvests are closing in, it's stressful for both farmers and farmworkers. 'Labor is tight, but it's holding. And as long as – we pray every day – they stay out of the valley, then we'll make it through this season,' he said. 'But we do need to deal with it. We should not have to go through this type of tension. And workers should not have to worry about shaving their beard.'
Chicago Tribune
8 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Christi Parsons: Abraham Lincoln's empathy is what our divided nation needs
In our era, they might seem like performative gestures for the president. A quiet visit with the wife of a wounded soldier. A conversation with a battlefield nurse or a kitchen worker. A hand extended to a Black woman who had once been enslaved. Abraham Lincoln didn't publicize these moments, though. He prioritized them for personal reasons. Because even as he held the Union together with the force of his will — even as he buried his own child and bore the weight of a nation at war — he made time for mercy. He listened to the voices of those without power, a practice that steeled him for wielding his own. Empathy is getting a bad rap these days. Elon Musk recently declared it the 'fundamental weakness' of Western civilization, summing up the ethos of the administration he just left. Even those who defend empathy speak of it mainly as a private virtue, not one that compels any particular action by public figures. But in the hands of a great leader, empathy can become a powerful political force. Whenever America has begun to fray — during war, depression, civil upheaval — the country has rallied behind a president who focused on the disenfranchised. If we're to survive our current crisis of division, our civic leaders need to do the same thing. And, as citizens, so do we. Maybe that's why Lincoln's name keeps rising in our conversations, as historians and storytellers nudge us in this direction. Lincoln is a figure in exhibits, podcasts and intellectual festivals this summer. The Metropolitan Opera is working to produce George Saunders' moving novel 'Lincoln in the Bardo,' a deeply empathetic portrayal of the 16th president. New scholarship further reveals a deeply sensitive and heartfelt man. In this modern moment of anxiety, they're showing the way to a better place — or at least the first step toward it. How did Lincoln cultivate the trait of empathy? Partly by surrounding himself with compassionate people. That's according to 'Loving Lincoln,' a new biography examining his story through the lives of the women who, despite their lack of franchise, were his key influencers. By his female relatives, Lincoln was nurtured into what his stepmother called 'the best boy I ever saw,' historian Stacy Lynn writes. Their stories 'offer evidence of Lincoln's kindness and sensitivity, his patience, his moral center, his social and political virtues, the breadth of his compassion, and his inspirational legacy.' By far, the deepest relationship of his life was with his wife, Mary, whose steely resolve helped bolster his commitment to freeing enslaved people. She was in favor of emancipation very early on, and she pressed her husband on the issue. The Lincoln White House became a place of mercy and goodwill, in no small part because of the compassion the president showed for his wife in her grief. He welcomed Black people to the White House. Mary Dines, who worked in the kitchen, urged Lincoln to visit the camps where newly freed families lived, and he went. Elizabeth Keckley, a formerly enslaved woman who became Mary Lincoln's dressmaker and confidante, called him 'kind and generous by nature.' Editorial: The idea of America, under stressLincoln also welcomed Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth. 'I never was treated by any one with more kindness and cordiality than were shown to me by that great and good man, Abraham Lincoln,' Truth said later. To meet the gaze of all these people, to shake their hands, to give them audience — these were not symbolic gestures. They were radical acts of inclusion by the leader who kept the Union intact. This is meaningful for us today, in our moment of deep national division. For those in office, the life of Lincoln is a guideline. He spoke publicly of the need for love and compassion. He surrounded himself with confidantes who embraced it. And he took action on it, ultimately assisting the emancipation of 4 million people from bondage. Elected officials today can do likewise. They can reject the dogma of hatred in discussing immigration. They can surround themselves with advisers who, even if they favor downsizing government, hold respect for public service and public servants. They can vote and act with care for those on the margins of society. But the work of public compassion isn't all on their shoulders. Each of us can train ourselves individually for compassion. A good first step is the one Lincoln modeled all his life. We can start today by using compassionate language, a practice that can lead to feeling it in the heart. Research shows language doesn't just express emotion — it can help shape it. Certain practices can actually increase activity in the neural networks that enhance empathy and emotional regulation. Showing empathy to others feels good, too. Compassion, as with charity, begins at home. Ultimately, though, we have a compassionate responsibility to one another. So what can we as individuals do to fulfill it? We can reach out to friends and family members with differing perspectives. We can try to talk, understand and share. We can reward kindness in those who seek our votes — this fall, next year and the two after that. We can help change the national tenor by changing our own. In the grand scheme of things, it was just a few years ago that Lincoln led our country through something much worse than the conflict we're now experiencing. His example feels even more relevant when we consider how powerfully his words land in our hearts today. He's telling us how to bind up the wounds of our nation, 'with malice toward none, with charity for all.' For the love of Lincoln, let's listen. Christi Parsons is a former Tribune White House correspondent and a longtime political journalist now on the faculty at the University of Maryland.
The Hill
8 hours ago
- The Hill
Head Start faces new worries about its future with Trump, GOP
Supporters of Head Start are worried about the program's future as it faces Trump administration calls for budgetary cuts ahead of the next school year. The free, federally funded program for low-income families provides education for infants through preschoolers and had enjoyed bipartisan support for most of its 60-year history. But worries are mounting for both Head Start staff and parents. The Project 2025 blueprint calling for deep federal cuts proposed Head Start's elimination, and while calls to cut its budget have diminished, advocates don't feel the program is safe. The administration also is looking at enrollment changes that could impact students lacking permanent legal status who are covered by Head Start. 'A lot of people have called this death by a thousand cuts, what we've seen in the past six months,' said Casey Peeks, senior director of Early Childhood Policy at the Center for American Progress. Head Start seemed to escape the worst possible fate after a report earlier this year by USA Today that said the White House was ready to adopt the Project 2025 blueprint and eliminate it. Despite the fears, President Trump's final proposal didn't include an increase or decrease in Head Start funding. It kept the program at the same funding level as last year. Other early preschool programs, Preschool Development Grants and the Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools, were cut in the budget. Still, the flat funding could hurt as more families seek to use Head Start in an era of rising costs. 'We do have concerns that flat funding … would equate as a cut to Head Start and Early Head Start programs, given cost of living, inflationary costs, as well as just higher costs of operating services, the needs to be able to provide a competitive wage in order to have staff,' said Tommy Sheridan, deputy director for the National Head Start Association. A report last week released by the Government Accountability Office found a temporary funding freeze to Head Start at the beginning of the administration was illegal. The move put programs into chaos, and some even briefly shut down during the pause. While funding was mostly spared, Head Start has watched the Trump administration target staff and enrollment changes. In April, around 50 percent of staff at the Office of Head Start were cut and all staff at regional offices of Head Start were fired. 'We're also seeing a lot of chaos and panic among Head Start staff. They don't know if their jobs are as secure as they once were, which is really causing a problem, because it's not just Head Start, but across the early childhood sector there is a workforce shortage and these types of concerns, lack of reliability, it really doesn't help with the retention issues that are already a problem in normal circumstance,' said Peeks. The latest curveball thrown at Head Start was a notice from the Department of Health and Human Services that said undocumented students can no longer participate in the programs. The directive did not come with any clear instructions, sending programs into confusion as immigration status was never considered in Head Start's history. Twenty Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit against the directive while the federal government argued it 'ensures that public resources are no longer used to incentivize illegal immigration.' 'There's still a lot of confusion about what exactly it means, and we're encouraging people not to take action until there's more guidance or clarity on who exactly it affects and what the Head Start programs are required to do,' said Melissa Boteach, chief policy adviser for Zero to Three. 'But I think an important point is that it has a chilling effect, regardless, and that if you're [an] immigrant family, regardless of what your status is in terms of legal permanent residence, or mixed status family or refugee or whatever it is, you're legitimately scared of sending your child to an Early Head Start or Head Start program,' she added. Some fear this is just the beginning of an effort to go after the program despite previous bipartisan support, including during the first Trump administration. In Trump's first four years in office, Head Start received funding increases and greater support, especially at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are signs the program could come under more pressure from Republicans who say Head Start has not been accountable enough in how it has spent money. Days after Trump came into office, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce highlighted a report by the Government Accountability Office regarding abuse and negligence in Head Start programs, including child safety concerns and lack of oversight over classroom materials. 'These programs continue to suck up millions in taxpayer funding without serious accountability or oversight. We have an obligation to protect these children and end this gross negligence immediately,' Committee Chair Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) said at the time. Proponents of Head Start argue there is data to show it helps lower crime rates, reduces health care costs and increase tax revenue. 'This is proof of the effectiveness of Head Start, and the effectiveness and the impact of the investment that Head Start has been making,' said Sheridan. 'And so, we believe that there's really no sound reason to interfere with that, and we believe that Congress and the administration should come together and really commit to building on the 60 year of bipartisan support that Head Start has had, and double down on that fundamental commitment that our country has made to children and to our collective future.'
