It’s time to raise our voices loud and strong

Two recent actions demonstrate appalling cruelty by our elected officials in Washington, D.C. One is President Donald Trump’s recent decision to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in six months. The other is the bill proposed by Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, which would destroy Medicaid along with the Affordable Care Act.

Without DACA, between 100,000 and 800,000 young people could be deported to countries of which they may have no memories, and where they may not have friends or family or even know the language. Their “crime” is that they were not born in America. The Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson bill, apparently dead in the Senate, singled out another group of helpless and innocent people to crush. In this case, it was the poor, the elderly and the disabled.

Over 20 years, it would have cut more than $4 trillion out of federal funding and Medicaid payments, money that pays for health care for tens of millions of Americans, and other additional services for the disabled.

Congress can and must be pressured to reauthorize DACA; and the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson bill must never become law. It is up to us, the people, to raise our voices. We must show the world that we are not cruel, but compassionate. Allison Lemons Santa Fe