a18 eZ re the washington post.saturday, april 4 , 2020
letters to the editor[email protected]the digital divideM
IGRANT CHILDREN and their families
held in federal detention facilities are
sitting ducks for the pestilence now
spreading through communities nation-
wide. Already, four detained children have tested
positive for the novel coronavirus; so have staff
members at shelters for unaccompanied minors.
Two federal judges, alarmed at what appears to be a
disaster in the making, have ordered immigration
authorities to accelerate releases of detained mi-
grants who have no criminal records and pose no
danger to society. The longer the delay, the greater
the risk to both the migrants and others.
The judges set April 6 as the date by which two
federal agencies — U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, which operates three migrant family
detention facilities, and the Office of Refugee Reset-
tlement, which oversees shelters for unaccompanied
minors — must report on their progress.
Jails, prisons a nd other d etention facilities, o ften
lacking any realistic means of achieving physical
distance among inmates and detainees, are tinder-
boxes for disease of all sorts. Soap supplies areoften inadequate.
That’s unnerving enough, given that populations
in detention are never static, and that the constant
transfers of people in and out are a recipe for rapid
transmission of pathogens. It’s m ore frightening still
when the potential victims are children — and
generally blameless children at that.
Blameless: That’s an accurate way of describing
most of the minors in immigration d etention. Some
were apprehended with their parents, who were
often seeking asylum for the family. Many others
entered t he country on their own, sent or smuggled
with help from their families in hopes of joining
relatives living in the United States. Nearly
7,000 children are being held in immigration
detention, nearly half of them with one or both
parents.
A federal lawsuit settled in 1997 set limits on the
time migrant minors can be held in detention, in
recognition of damage it can do to their emotional
and mental health. The Trump administration,
seeking ways to deter further illegal immigration,
has been bending those rules, even seeking to holdmigrant children with their families indefinitely.
That was dangerous enough. Subjecting children to
a heightened risk of being exposed to a widening
pandemic is beyond irresponsible.
U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee of Los Angeles, in
an order last weekend, found that family detention
facilities run by ICE — two in Te xas and one in
Pennsylvania — appear “deficient” in terms of
adopting standards and protocols, set by the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, that would
protect children from disease. Judge Gee ordered
federal agencies to make “continuous efforts” to
release migrant minors from custody. Ruling sepa-
rately last Monday in the same lawsuit, U.S. District
Judge James E. Boasberg of the District expanded
the order to apply to the minors’ parents detained
with them.
The urgency is real. If and when the coronavirus
begins spreading inside the facilities, the danger of
releasing migrant children may become equal to or
greater than the risks posed by continuing to detain
them. That’s n ot a choice the courts should be forced
to make.In detention, migrant children are stalked by covid-
U.S. agencies must accelerate the release of blameless youths.
S
OME 77 p ercent o f the U.S. public support the
bipartisan $2.2 trillion coronavirus crisis
economic package, according to Gallup.
Undoubtedly t his wide consensus reflects
not only the sheer magnitude of the crisis to which
the law responded, and the lack of viable alterna-
tives, but also the degree to which Congress kept its
focus on the most immediate needs of individuals,
firms and health-care providers, with a minimum of
non-germane pet spending items or permanent
policy changes.
There were, alas, exceptions. Probably most
regrettable is the bill’s c reation of a tax exclusion f or
employer payments of employee student loans up
to $5,250 each through the end of 2020. Undoubt-
edly, student debt b urdens many households, which
is why it made sense for Congress to postpone
payments on government-provided loans for six
months in the bill. The tax break, h owever, provides
a measure of actual principal relief Congress opted
not to offer more generally, but only to relatively
advantaged borrowers: those who have jobs, earn
enough to i temize their tax returns a nd work f or t he
8 percent of employers who already provide such
support as taxable income under current law.
Lobbying to make this provision permanent has
already begun — and should be resisted.
The same goes for certain other tax breaks in the
bill, especially provisions temporarily and, given the
crisis, arguably necessarily, expanding business
deductions for interest costs and net operating
losses. Restrictions on those were among the few
offsets to the 2017 tax bill’s broader largesse for
corporations; the tougher treatment of interest
costs was expected to raise almost $478 billion by
2032, with the salutary effect of discouraging
excessive corporate debt. This might be a time for
emergency tax relief, but not for a permanent
narrowing of an already diminished federal tax base.Already, there are signs of a less balanced debate
over what may be inevitable additional coronavirus
economic relief in the coming weeks. House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is suggesting a
restoration of the federal tax deduction for state
and local tax payments, which the 2017 tax bill
sharply curtailed — at a savings to the treasury of
$668 billion, according to the Joint Committee on
Ta xation. She even wants to make i t retroactive. T he
chief beneficiaries of the deduction would be
suburban upper-income households in high-tax
blue states such as Ms. Pelosi’s California; the top17 percent of earners claimed 77 percent of the
benefits prior to the 2017 change, according to the
Ta x Policy Center. Yes, states need federal help to get
through this crisis; this huge upward transfer of
income is an unfair and inefficient way to do that,
especially if it’s retroactive — a pure windfall.
S o far, both parties in Congress have mostly not
used the crisis to pursue long-standing but tenu-
ously related legislative goals. All who may be
tempted to start behaving differently should take
note that this was not only good policy but good
politics, too.Spending creep
States need federal help, but
Congress should stay focused.ABCDE
FredericK J. ryan Jr., Publisher and chief executive officer
News pages: editorial and opinion pages:
Martin Baron Fred Hiatt
executive editor editorial Page editor
caMeron Barr JacKson dieHl
Managing editor deputy editorial Page editor
eMilio Garcia-rUiZ rUtH MarcUs
Managing editor deputy editorial Page editor
tracy Grant Jo-ann arMao
Managing editor associate editorial Page editor
scott Vance
deputy Managing editor
BarBara VoBeJda
deputy Managing editor
vice Presidents:
JaMes W. coley Jr. ..................................................................................... Production
l. Wayne connell..........................................................................Human resources
Kate M. daVey .................................................................................. revenue strategy
eliZaBetH H. diaZ ................................................. audience development & insights
GreGG J. Fernandes........................................................customer care & logistics
stePHen P. GiBson...................................................................Finance & operations
scot GillesPie.........................................................................................................arc
Kristine coratti Kelly...................................................communications & events
JoHn B. Kennedy.................................................................General counsel & labor
MiKi toliVer KinG........................................................................................Marketing
Kat doWns MUlder........................................................................Product & design
sHailesH PraKasH...............................digital Product development & engineering
Joy roBins ........................................................................................... client solutions
the Washington Post
1301 K st. nW, Washington, d.c. 20071 (202) 334-The March 30 editorial “Disconnected by the vi-
rus” noted temporary, i ntermediate steps by the Feder-
al Communications Commission (FCC) and the unre-
alized efforts by Congress to include digital divide fixes
in the stimulus funding bill, including i ncreased fund-
ing for schools and libraries to provide “hotspots” for
students who don’t h ave access to broadband at h ome.
T he solutions enacted by the FCC and the editorial’s
proposal for increased funding for hotspots a re com-
mendable but insufficient. The tens of millions of
American families on the wrong side of the digital
divide deserve more than temporary funding for tem-
porary fixes. People on the wrong side of the divide —
often immigrants, elderly and low-income families
with children — are further marginalized when they
have no or intermittent access to broadband.
Fortunately, there is a solution. The FCC’s Lifeline
program provides funding for connecting low-incomefamilies to telecommunications technologies. The
program provides subsidies for traditional telephone
service, mobile service or limited broadband service
(one per household). It badly needs modernization
and increased funding. Modernization and adequate
funding of Lifeline would provide a much-needed
comprehensive and permanent solution for the tens of
millions of Americans on the wrong side of the digital
divide. The next stimulus bill should provide funding
for short-term connectivity and fund a modernized
Lifeline program so our nation won’t need to resort to
short-term or temporary fixes in the event of a future
crisis.
Larry Irving, Washington
T he writer is the former U.S. assistant secretary of
commerce and helped write the legislation that led to
the Lifeline program as a staff member for
then-congressman Mickey Leland (D-Tex.).A Lifeline for disconnected Americans
carolyn Kaster/associated Press
The Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol in Washington last month.In view of the recent measures applied to prevent
huge gatherings of people and the March 31 editorial
“Bad actors,” about the megachurches that continue
to pack Sunday services, I can’t help but wonder how
Montgomery County is handling the congregation of
more than 300 people experiencing homelessness
who get meals and a multitude of services at Shep-
herd’s Table/Progress Place in downtown Silver
Spring.
Certainly this i s a clear violation o f the orders f rom
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) to stop the spread of
the highly contagious novel coronavirus. T he burden
of services to the homeless should not be put on one
segment of the down-county area, particularly con-
sidering the risk to the surrounding community that
carries this burden. A burden shared is a burden
halved.
Dale Barnhard, Silver SpringRegarding the March 31 news article “U.S. inves-
tigates senator’s s tock trades amid o utbreak”:
For good reason, the Justice Department, coordi-
nating with the Securities and Exchange Commis-
sion, i s investigating t he timing and circumstances o f
recent stock trades by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.),
chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The
intelligence community issued classified warnings
throughout January and February about the rapid
spread of the coronavirus from China to other coun-
tries. T here can be no doubt that Mr. Burr had daily
access to “material nonpublic information,” includ-
ing briefings o n the coronavirus threat, that made his
insider trading possible, as prohibited by the STOCK
Act. Indeed, as a member of the “Gang of Eight”
congressional leaders — under intelligence oversight
legislation — he is “fully and currently informed” on
the most sensitive information under the rubric of
national security. In reality, he and his Democratic
counterpart, Sen. Mark R. Warner (Va.), are often
privy to the “crown jewels” product of the 17 agencies
of the intelligence c ommunity.
D uring the 2016 Trump campaign for president,
Mr. Burr was briefing candidate Donald Trump on
intelligence matters well before the Republican can-
didate was cleared to receive such information. That
fact alone could ensure a presidential pardon if this
scandal should ever wind up in court, which is
unlikely. Public exposure is the only punishment for
Mr. Burr.
William E. Jackson Jr., Davidson, N.C.Regarding the March 31 editorial “The path
forward”:
We also need to plan for fall and winter. We will be
lucky if we find drugs that mitigate the virus. We will
be lucky if perchance the virus wanes during the
summer months a nd n ever returns. We will be l ucky i f
a miracle vaccine is developed this s ummer a nd made
posthaste for everyone. We will be unlucky in the
extreme if the virus reemerges in the fall and we are
unprepared.
The editorial’s proposals for preparedness high-
lighted the need for effective leadership and coordi-
nation. But i t’s an election year. We can’t assume t hat
President Trump will be r eelected, which would m ean
an experienced team would stay i n place. It’s i mpossi-
ble t o know how Mr. Trump will h andle his role i f he is
not reelected, but a loss of critical leadership posts
would be detrimental to national coordination if the
virus reemerged and there were a change o f adminis-
tration. Three months of lame-duck leadership in
critical Cabinet positions, along with months of con-
firmation hearings, would not bode well for us next
winter. I don’t know what can be done legally, but
planning for a transition of administrations should
be done well ahead of time.
Bob Pokras, Silver S pringJamie Margolin made a number of excellent
points in her comparison of the novel coronavirus
pandemic a nd climate c hange [“The c oronavirus w ill
kill you. Climate change will kill us.,” Outlook, March
29]. In fact, if the s tory of the pandemic in the United
States had been written as a fictional novel, it would
be instantly recognized as an allegory for our han-
dling of global climate change. One faction of the
government repeatedly ignores dire warnings from
scientists. It treats the problem as a political maneu-
ver, an exaggeration or a hoax and goes into denial.
Because of incompetence, ignorance and selfishness,
the response is delayed and flubbed, making the
problem even worse. Even when the consequences
begin to be noticed, wishful thinking prevails over
systematic action, the consequences to the “econo-
my” overrule the effects on human beings, and the
excuses begin.
The difference i s that o ur bungling o f the c oronavi-
rus situation is affecting us directly, we are paying in
real time for the mistakes of our leaders, and our
world, coming o ut t he o ther e nd of t his, w ill be forever
changed. Climate change will be a disaster not for us
so much as for future generations, and it is not clear
there will be a ny c oming out o f it.
David R. Williams, Silver S pringIgnoring the virus at our peril
I was reading the March 28 news article “Inside
the frantic negotiations on the stimulus package”
when I was stopped short seeing that one of the
rooms in which the negotiations were taking place
was the “Strom Thurmond room,” part of the offices
of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
What an insult to the Capitol and the American
people to have a room in it named after an individual
who promoted every negative, anti-humane value
espoused in the building in the 20th century.
There was a rather nice piece of poetic justice that,
to move things forward, the senators moved to a
room named after the former master of working the
Hill and making good things happen: former majori-
ty leader and president Lyndon B. Johnson. The
heritage of these two men could not be more
different: Thurmond toward denigrating his fellow
citizens and Johnson toward bringing good to his
fellow Americans.
I hope once this virus crisis is over, the Senate will
take immediate action to remove the name Strom
Thurmond from any location in the Capitol.
Thomas Bower, WashingtonAn insult to the Capitol
“T
HESE PAST few weeks have been some
of the most heart-wrenching in my life.
Coding a patient before I even knew
her name. Te lling families they can’t be
with their loved ones. Watching a healthy 28-year-
old man with covid-19 become so sick that only
machines keep him alive. I t is e xhausting, and by no
means does it feel heroic.”
Dr. Danielle Stansky, the emergency medicine
resident physician in New York City who wrote that
stirring account of coping with the novel coronavi-
rus pandemic, may not feel like a hero. But she —
and all the other doctors, nurses, paramedics,
hospital aides, technicians and janitors who are on
the front lines of fighting this terrible disease — are
exhibiting a bravery, c ommitment a nd sacrifice t hat
is indeed heroic. They most certainly deserve the
nation’s t hanks. More to the p oint: They d eserve the
equipment and support essential to their jobs as
they try to save lives, without sacrificing their own.
The experiences detailed by Dr. Stansky in a Post
op-ed — the lack of protective gear, the colleagueswho a lready have c ontracted the v irus, the constant
fear — are taking a toll on emergency workers and
hospital personnel in communities across the
country. “My fear of dying is worse now than it was
when I was in Iraq,” said an emergency room
physician in Los Angeles County. “I feel like we’re
all just being sent to slaughter,” s aid a nurse in the
Bronx who has contracted the virus. “It’s hard. Very
hard,” s aid an emergency medical service respond-
er in Queens a bout how his job puts him at s uch risk
he decided to stop seeing his son.
Measuring how badly health providers h ave been
hit is difficult because no nationwide data have
been released. But a mong the deaths s o far f rom the
virus: t wo nurses in New York City, an emergency
room physician in New Jersey and a nurse at
Howard University in the District. The experience
of other countries is grim: In China, more than
3,000 doctors were infected; in Italy, at least
50 health-care workers have died. Emergency
health providers know they always face risks, but
they shouldn’t have to accept doing their jobswithout even the basics of proper equipment.
Stories of doctors being rationed surgical masks
that are stored in paper bags between shifts, nurses
outfitted in garbage bags instead of protective
gowns, janitors made to clean hospital rooms after
a patient died from covid-19 without an N95 mask
are — or should be — insupportable.
Instead, President Trump suggests there is
something suspicious about the rate at which
providers are going through masks. Some hospitals
have threatened to fire personnel who speak to the
media or publicly complain about the lack of
supplies. With Department of Homeland Security
officials now reporting that the national supply of
emergency gear has been depleted, it is more
important than ever that Mr. Trump stop casting
groundless aspersions and instead do his job. He
should make more use of the Defense Production
Act to generate needed equipment. The U. S. public
can do its p art, too, by heeding the advice of doctors
and other health professionals and just staying
home.The real heroes
Our health-care workers are saving lives, but their own lives are needlessly endangered.
ABCDE
AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
editorials letters can be sent to [email protected].
submissions must be exclusive to the Post and should
include the writer's address and day and evening
telephone numbers. letters are subject to editing and
abridgment. Please do not send letters as attachments.
Because of the volume of material we receive, we are
unable to acknowledge submissions; writers whose letters
are under consideration for publication will be contacted.