After reading the letter to the editor by Bernard Haske of Catonsville, “Morin’s blood is on Biden’s hands” (June 20), I felt compelled to respond.

Immigration reform is a very complicated and politically motivated issue to resolve, and it seems to me that both political parties have dropped the ball when it comes to making significant progress. The letter writer wants to lay the blame for the tragic death of Patti Morin’s daughter, Rachel, squarely at the doorstep of President Joe Biden, and I couldn’t disagree more. He claims that our border was “under control” while Donald Trump was in office and that President Biden undid everything once he was voted into office. Let me set the record straight.

During his term in office, Trump invoked Title 42, meant as a public health measure, which allowed U.S. authorities to swiftly expel migrants, including asylum seekers, at the border. When Biden took office, he did not undo the Trump border policy known as Title 42. In fact, Biden defended keeping Title 42 in place, and over 2 million migrants were expelled between January 2021 and May 2023 when the U.S. declared both the coronavirus and Title 42 expired.

To replace Title 42, Biden took a “carrot and stick” approach, encouraging pathways while implementing strict penalties for those who cross illegally.

On June 4, a new and long-awaited executive order was unveiled, which allows U.S. authorities to swiftly deport migrants who enter the country illegally without processing their asylum requests. Removal will take place within days, even hours. The rule will not apply to those who enter using legal pathways.

Trump used the same regulation to ban immigration and travel by migrants from Muslim countries.

Under the Trump administration, the border crisis was never “under control,” as Haske would like us to believe. One example was the incredibly inhumane practice of separating children from their parents and forcing them to stay in unsafe and unhealthy living conditions apart from Mom and Dad.

Migrants do not take the trek from their home countries to the U.S. lightly. It is a dangerous and grueling journey. One can only imagine the dangerous conditions in their home countries that force people to flee their extended families and what they know to come to a new place to start over so that they and their children can have a better life.

Ironically, most migrants come to this “land of opportunity” for the very same reasons that most white people’s ancestors came to the “new world.” What would each of us do if we were faced with rape, torture, disappearances, extreme poverty, starvation and impossible economic conditions?

My heart breaks for any parent who has endured the unthinkable — the loss of a son or daughter — especially to a brutal and senseless murder and rape such as has happened to Patti Morin’s daughter Rachel, a mother of five children.

For those such as Haske and others who want to demonize all migrants and accuse them of driving up the crime rate, they need to do some research, such as that done by Stanford Economist Ran Abramitzky, who stated that immigrants increasing the crime rate “hasn’t been the case for the last 140 years.” He also found that “the likelihood of an immigrant being incarcerated is 60% lower than of people born here in the United States.”

As badly as I feel about the tragic murder of Rachel Morin, I do believe that a more humane approach to immigration reform is the way to go.

Referring to human beings struggling for a better life as “animals” and “not human,” “dangerous criminals,” and “poisoning the blood of America” does not help solve the border crisis.

Trump had an opportunity to resolve the border problem and prove that he is worthy of the presidency by telling his Republican supporters in Congress to vote for the bipartisan immigration legislation, but he took the low road and instead told his House and Senate supporters to vote against the legislation that a hardworking bipartisan committee developed and that President Biden said that he would sign into law. Imagine Republicans and Democrats working together on border legislation that the public calls for daily. But that would have been an issue that Trump would not have been able to use to his political advantage!

Finally, the writer claims that no other country has a border policy like ours, but Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, and Germany have similar border policies. As he states, “elections matter.” I couldn’t agree more. Elections do matter. That’s why it’s so important to be informed and know which candidate has the best way of resolving the border crisis humanely and fairly.

— Bonnie Schneider, Baltimore

Loss of AP African American history class a blow to Harford

You have reported that Harford County schools will not offer Advanced Placement African American Studies after a majority of school board members voted to eliminate that course because they consider it divisive and political (“Harford schools wrong to reject AP African American studies,” June 30). I hope these board members have enough insight to see that they are exactly what they choose to avoid by not offering the course. They are being political and divisive while claiming they are protecting high school students from politics and divisiveness.

A classroom is a place for discussion and debate. I am sure by high school age, students, especially the ones who choose to do AP courses, have learned to deal with controversies. And with a good teacher at the head of the class, they can sort out the negatives and the positives of their courses through robust arguments.

The Harford board would stifle a cross-pollination of ideas in the classrooms, disrespecting the intelligence of students, both white and minority, and the wisdom of their teachers who would be able to navigate them between the Scylla of racial divisions and Charybdis of racial politics. They’ve made a dictatorial decision to scrap this important course based on their antiquated ways of thinking and baseless fears.

What are they afraid of? That the students of Harford County will disrespect law enforcement when they learn the role of law enforcement in the lives of Black Americans, present and past? Their revisionism by omission is a terrible suppression of the truth.

Oppression is part of historical truth for African Americans. Overcoming oppression is also part of that truth. If the very word “oppression” is anathema to the board members who pontificate that African American history should exclude the oppression that happened to concentrate on the progress being made, that’s like saying African American history should be a house without a foundation.

An estimated 14% of Harford County residents are Black. Their children are being denied an opportunity to study their own history when the Harford County Board of Education disallowed the course. The loss of this course is also a loss to those white students who want to learn the history of America in all its glorious and inglorious moments. And I have no doubt there are many such white students, bold and more open-minded than the board members who would deny them that chance.

— Usha Nellore, Bel Air