TPS workers, ICE detentions, bullying, life skills classes

Extend status for vital care workers

Sadly, Temporary Protected Status has been removed recently from Haitians and Somalis ["LI Haitians: 'We need help,' " Long Island, Aug. 13]. These people have worked here legally and created a life for themselves while their countries have been in dangerous turmoil.

The same can be said for many other TPS recipients from other countries. They created businesses, worked in healthcare and held other essential jobs.

My gardener had a thriving business, employed workers, and bought a home. He was overjoyed as his sons started college. Our country has benefited by their presence, and this is how our country has rewarded them? They should be offered a path to citizenship instead of this blatantly racist action.

— Judi Gardner, Melville

Haitian workers play a vital role in caring for America's elderly, especially in Nassau County and across New York. These men and women are not criminals — they are taxpayers who support Social Security, Medicare, and our local economies while providing essential care that many families rely on every day.

I urge leaders from both parties to appeal to President Donald Trump for leniency and temporary protection for these workers. Forcing their return now would leave a dangerous gap in elder care and devastate families already suffering.

Many of their relatives in Haiti have been displaced by gang violence — homes have been burned, neighborhoods overtaken, and the country is not prepared to receive them safely.

Protecting these workers is not a partisan issue — it is a moral, economic, and practical necessity. America depends on their labor, compassion, and service. Let's not abandon them in their hour of need.

— David Duchatellier, Elmont

ICE detentions show real safety story

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman hosted Donald Trump on Long Island, taking him to Nassau police's center for training and intelligence, and boasted about lowering crime rates ["President touts crime drop," News, Aug. 15].

However, Blakeman has not made Nassau County safer for all residents. During his tenure he has enabled U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to harass, detain, and intimidate thousands of people on Long Island this year. A man died last year under mysterious circumstances while detained inside an ICE holding center in Nassau County.

Many individuals whom ICE detains have no criminal records and have working papers. In addition, many have been in the midst of the legal process to obtain citizenship, visas, work status, and refugee status.

This is not the Long Island that citizens like me want to live in or feel safe in. His lower crime rates fail to tell the whole story.

— Eleanor Flicker, Sea Cliff

Local, state, and federal police officers are obligated to keep their distance from politics, period. It's a core rule of democracy. It shields Americans from the blackshirt fascism of Benito Mussolini and the brownshirt fascism of Adolf Hitler.

Yet on Friday, the Nassau County Police Department blithely ignored this rule. I support the police. We need them.

At the same time, however, I would urge that any uniformed police officers who were recorded cheering on President Donald Trump's overtly political statements in Uniondale receive appropriate discipline.

They're not here to take sides.

— Steve Vitoff, Huntington

Leaders must stop showing bad conduct

As a retired teacher, I know bullying in schools has been a problem for a long time and there have always been neighborhood bullies, but the rise of social media and the normalization by our president of this hideous behavior have taken it to a new level ["LI bullying may be bigger issue," News, Aug. 10].

Bullying is a power dynamic that can be verbal, online, over the phone or in person, subtle or overt, according to experts. We have seen this behavior from the highest levels of government, with the president posting demeaning and hurtful social media cartoons. He uses terms like "scum," "deranged," and "criminals" — and worse — to describe people who disagree with him.

We need to come together and summon the moral courage to confront this, to call it out, to protect those being targeted and to engage the legal system to fight for a return to "a kinder and safer community" per the advice of the Massapequa Kindness Coalition.

— Monica Weiss, Jamaica

Restore life skills to local schoolrooms

I chuckled when I read about retail stores having sewing workshops ["Reaping what they sew," LI Business, Aug. 16]. These workshops teach customers how to sew buttons, hem, patch, and fix a tear. Back in the day, junior high and high school students took home economics class. I still remember and use the lessons in basic sewing, cooking, and keeping a checkbook. I loved those classes.

Perhaps school districts should rethink their curriculums and add some of these useful lessons that last a lifetime.

— Karyn Rhodes Dornfield, Westbury