Laken Riley Act Denies Due Process
Thank you for the article by Edward Kissam on immigrant rights published in your February 2025 edition and your editorial on the same subject. I appreciated the “outing” of our elected friends who pander their Democratic credentials when campaigning for votes.
However, their actions back in Washington, D.C., often speak a different language. They fall in line with the Republican Party immigrant-bashing on legislation that does nothing to advance essential immigration reform, much less further address crime. I am referring to Jim Costa (D–Fresno), Adam Gray (D–Merced) and Josh Harder (D–Tracy), who voted for legislation that continues the narrative that immigrants are, for the most part, criminals.
This specific legislation is named after Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student who was brutally murdered; nothing and no one can justify this tragic loss. The bottom line is the Laken Riley Act serves no real purpose as Homeland Security already has substantial authority to detain undocumented individuals for crimes committed.
This Act denies immigrants their rights, and it goes against the “constitutional concept of due process and innocence until guilt is proven.” Individuals can be arrested for minor crimes and be immediately deported with no trial, and no guilty or innocent verdict. Just a few days after standing with local officials and community organizations speaking in support of immigrant rights, Costa voted to pass this act.
Thank you for calling out Costa’s vote on this unnecessary legislation! I agree with you—he has become “ineffectual,” and it is long overdue for him to step aside. Now more than ever, our elected representatives must stand against this government takeover and not shy away from speaking truth to power. If Costa is afraid of losing his job, then he should get out of the way, either step up or step out!
Luisa Medina
Fowler
Water and Greed
Following California’s water wars behind the scenes has been interesting. A new San Joaquin River movie released before Christmas 2024 showed how big boats used to sail from behind Woodward Park to San Francisco Bay.
San Francisco sued Friant Dam in 2023‒2024 again for holding too much fresh water, the extinction of species and to restore it to its original capacity 70 years ago. The Resnicks and the 1% who own California’s water, especially in the San Joaquin Valley, do not like having to return water.
The way these greedy landowners privatize water dehydrates the land, and blaming environmentalists or DEI programs is rhetoric. This robs 99% of the environment and the community of natural resources, which has drastically altered the landscape since the establishment of these companies owning the water.
[The United States] has an interesting history of false flag operations under the term coups where they used guerilla warfare, strategic tactics, political chaos, regime change, and controlling and misleading mainstream outlets on all platforms to overthrow other countries and establish policy on their homeland.Trump is establishing executive orders to return our water back to privatized ownership due to misinformation about the fires in L.A.
Diego Rivera
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Homeless Hardships
It must be really nice to have the perfect life, family, job and housing. The homeless community in Fresno does not have that option right now.
You are always moving to stay a couple of steps in front of the HART (Homeless Assistance Response Team) because they hit at any time of the day or night with no notice. They take everything you own including your food, water, medicines, clothing, tents, blankets, etc.
You are left with nothing to sustain your life and nowhere to go, no food to eat and nothing to keep you warm and covered at night when it’s freezing cold or during a rainstorm when it’s both cold and wet.
What are we to do to get these things back? We scavenge in the dumpsters and trash cans searching for anything that will help us make it through just one more day out here. Most of us are waiting for a bed in one of the shelters, some waiting six months or more because there are none available.
This life is already hard. Please, for God’s sake, don’t make it harder than it has to be.
Tiffany
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Back on the Streets
I never realized what people go through when their lives become unmanageable and unforeseen circumstances ruin their stability. I moved here in 2013 and never encountered the homeless, let alone communicated with them.
Then I met a homeless couple through a mutual friend, and they needed somewhere to shower, do laundry, eat a homecooked meal. I just had my PG&E turned off, so they said they’d pay to get it turned back on if they could stay a night or two. After sitting with them and hearing some of their stories, I was in shock at the things they had endured.
After their stay, I started meeting more people either homeless or going through hard times. I took in some of them and noticed that after a couple of days they seem to get anxious and start feeling claustrophobic and they leave to go back on the streets.
I know there are shelters and food banks and government programs that are there to help, but it’s a long process and they don’t want to deal with bureaucratic bullshit.
Besides, they are more comfortable out in the open space. If they had a home to go to even for a couple days, it would benefit them and the community, and overall our environment would see positive progress for all humanity.
Dawn Davis
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