Outrage and support
Immigrant defense fund
Regarding “County OKs immigrant defense fund,” (A1, Feb. 26): Kudos to Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo for proposing a county-funded program to provide legal services to local immigrants. At American Gateways, which provides legal help to immigrants in more than 20 Central Texas counties, we’ve seen the success of such efforts. In 2017, Austin’s city government — led by its mayor and city council — joined the Vera Safe Cities Network to ensure that immigrants facing deportation win legal representation. In partnership, American Gateways was enlisted to line up lawyers for immigrants facing deportation while keeping families together — and the supportive council has continued to fund needs. Hidalgo is right, too, in pointing out that children of detained or deported parents — who all too often lack attorneys — face trying health and mental health challenges. Legal representation helps keep families together, safe and healthy. Good on Harris County for stepping up. Rebecca Lightsey, executive director of American Gateways Austin/San Antonio/Waco
As a business owner in unincorporated Harris County and a taxpayer, I am outraged to see Harris County Commissioners Court vote to use taxpayer funds to provide legal services for immigrants, including those who are here illegally and facing deportation. I believe the priority of the commissioners is to build and maintain county infrastructure. As with most of Harris County, this area was hit hard by Hurricane Harvey. As a result, many roads are in disrepair. The commissioners are charged with being good stewards of taxpayer funds. Taxpayer funds should not be diverted for a controversial cause while real county needs, such as roads and flood prevention, are deprived of necessary and valuable funds. Use the money to deal with these infrastructure problems, which will benefit everyone who lives here. Those commissioners and anyone else who has a desire to help with undocumented immigrant legal issues should do it on their own time and with their own dime, not taxpayer dollars! Lenette Miller, Pearland Coronavirus
Regarding “CERAWeek succumbs to virus fears,” (A1, March 2): Rice University’s decision to quietly begin implementing a limited quarantine based on best practice public health standards is both wise and exemplary. Starting with the known, assessing risks and analyzing fact patterns is an example of the public health model in action. With prevention and vigorous early intervention as its focus, this model efficiently targets scarce resources. In the Rice University quarantine example, the decision to impose a focused quarantine minimizes risk of a local epidemic and at the same time avoids a full shutdown of all facilities. The university’s example reminds us there are more options than either panicking or waiting until something big happens. Leaders at the municipal, institutional, state and even federal levels should take notice of how the public health model, implemented at both local and regional levels, might help address whatever threat we face with COVID-19. Dr. John H. Jones, Houston