Sens. Rubio and Scott should protect DACA

The start of each new year brings hope and promise of a fresh start and resolutions of self-improvement.

This January is no different. It offers the chance to do right by a group of young people who came to this country with their families as children and have since grown up and made lives for themselves in America.

Unfortunately, for these Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, politics in Washington has put them at risk of separation from the only home they have ever truly known.

The DACA program was established in 2012 and grants approved applicants deportation protections and work authorization.

Thousands of young people are enrolled in the DACA program, including more than 32,600 in Florida.

Unfortunately, in 2017, the Trump administration rescinded the DACA program and put the lives of program recipients at risk.

Since then, DACA protections have been temporarily upheld by the courts, but the Supreme Court is poised to issue a ruling on the legality of the Trump administration’s decision early this year that could end the program and the protections on which DACA recipients rely.

The good news is, Congress has an opportunity to ensure that DACA recipients can remain in the country they call home by passing legislation that provides permanent protections to DREAMers, or those seeking residency status through the Dream Act, a bill introduced in the Senate in 2001.

The act would grant conditional residency and, upon meeting further qualifications, permanent residency.

As we begin this new year, I urge Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott to work in a bipartisan manner to make 2020 the year they finally keep their promises and pass permanent protections for DREAMers.

– Ivan Vazquez, Miami

REMEMBERING KOBE

My thoughts and prayers go out to Kobe Bryant’s loved ones. I was shocked and saddened to hear that he died in a helicopter accident. He transcended basketball and sports in general. He was one of the all-time great athletes.

– Paul Bacon, Hallandale Beach

VOTE IN SECRET

The way to resolve the charade of the Senate impeachment trial is to have secret ballots. That way, nobody knows who voted for or against removal. This would allow senators to vote their consciences instead exhibiting blind loyalty to a party.

This is not without precedence; it’s the same way we all vote.

– Allan Ira Bass, Miami

BAD BANKERS

Re the Jan. 25 story “Wells Fargo’s ex-chief is fined $17.5 million over fake accounts:” Kudos to the regulators. We should be happy that the one who committed the crime, rather than the stockholders. was penalized in a significant way .

When a fine is imposed on a bank, the stockholders ususally pay the price, causing ordinary working people or retirees to lose money on their holdings.

If, in the future, regulators and prosecutors punish those who actually is culpable, the result may be less white-collar crime.

Typically, CEOs and other executives make money for the bank and earn enormous bonuses for themselves while they violate the laws, and they may not be working for the same institution by the time charges are filed.

I congratulate the regulators for going after the individuals, for it is not the institutions that violate the law.

– Steven Z. Levinson, Miami Beach

IGUANAS VS. SNAKES

Soon afterr Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would coordinate his efforts with President Trump’s defense team and would not be impartial, he swore an oath on the Senate floor to be impartial. That’s called lying. It’s a crime when done under oath. It’s the crime for which Bill Clinton was impeached.

Let’s modernize the national myth: George Washington chops down the cherry tree. He blames his brother. He gets away with it. So children, lie to your parents. If you are caught, tell them you want to be the president of the United States when you grow up and that you’re just honing your skills.

– Steve Sussman, Miami

DIFFERENT RULES

The Jan. 26 letter “Undue process” argues that the president should be presumed innocent and be entitled to constitutional due process protections. But these only apply to someone accused of a crime. An impeachment trial is not a criminal trial. The accused is not at risk of losing freedom or property, just a job.

– Jacki Reed, Miami

OUR NATION’S FUTURE

It appears that President Trump will be found not guilty of the impeachment charges. This decision will establish a marker for future presidents. Here is a scenario for Trump supporters — and to Sen. Marco Rubio in particular, who will undoubtedly be a presidential contender in 2024.

Assume a liberal Democrat wins in 2020. To many Trump Republicans, liberal Democrat is synonymous with socialist and communist. This liberal president immediately seeks to normalize relations with Cuba. To this end, he or she appoints a personal envoy to Havana. It could even be Rudy Giuliani, who has shown a remarkable ability to flow with the tide (and the money) and who has expertise at this type of back-door business.

The envoy proposes a deal: The United States will set up a generous aid package for Cuba and will lift a broad range of sanctions. All the president wants in return is for Cuba to instruct its many spies in America to dig up all the dirt they can find on Rubio. Also, they are to generate dirt on Rubio by whatever means possible and to do the same for all other possible Republican presidential hopefuls.

To be clear, this favor is not to be confused with a “quid pro quo.” And even if it were, we now know that coercing a foreign power to interfere in an election is not grounds for impeachment. But lying about illicit sex is.

– Joseph M. Prospero,

Miami

WAIT AND SEE

Now that John Bolton may be allowed to testify that President Trump was holding up aid to Ukraine solely for his own political benefit, will Florida Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick

Scott continue to stonewall against a fair trial in the Senate?

Will they allow themselves to be made part of an historic cover-up, or will they finally show some integrity and demand that we get to the bottom of Trump’s wrongdoing?

– Simon Evnine,

Miami

THE REAL WORRY

The sponsored content published in the Jan. 26 Miami Herald, “Cuba: Isle of Disenchantment,” is a misguided lesson in history as it relates to today’s political climate. The author refuses to recognize the calculus of an American president who asks for foreign interference in an election and compounds that abuse of power by claiming executive privilege to withhold documents and testimony.

No other American president has ever acted so defiantly. These actions, if left unchecked by Congress, will forever change the balance of power in our three branches of government. That is the imminent danger.

The danger to democracy is not some socialist or communist grab for power by demonized Democrats who recognize and wish to right an unfair system of taxation, justice and repression weighed against the working class.

The real danger is a president who is challenging and threatening our fundamental system of government, overtly attempting to consolidate his power using the same siren songs and chicanery that Castro mastered in fooling the Cuban people.

So, enough with the clichés. The author should recognize that those who support this president are accomplices to the evisceration of the very liberties that he purports to cherish. – Steve Talercio,

Hallandale

UPGRADE THAT DRIVE

I realized over the weekend that some drivers’ behaviors, while annoying to those who know the traffic laws, may be unintentional. Drivers who routinely break the laws may not completely understand them.

A possible solution could be requiring continuing education units annually or bi-annually to keep a driver’s license.

– Frank Clark, Jr.,

West Kendall

LOST IN TRANSLATION

Having listened to much of the impeachment proceedings, I realized there are two more languages — Demcraticish and Republicanish. I’ve heard not just facts and blabber, but also senators using the same words that turn out to have opposite meanings.

Do certain senators and I need those language guides one picks up when traveling abroad to make understanding easier?

– Mary Lou Winkler,

Miami