Dear Mount Holyoke News,
I want to offer a correction to your reporting of “Noche Latina” in the March 29 issue. The student PowerPoint presentation about sanctuary was about immigrant sanctuary and not sanctuary from Hurricane Maria and the Trump administration’s response to the catastrophe. My class, “History of Deportation,” visited Springfield resident Lucío Pérez in sanctuary at the First Congregational Church in Amherst. He has been there since October. The students also held a fundraiser for the Pérez family.
In the context of Noche Latina’s focus on Hurricane Maria, I can understand the mistake. The two events do have some things in common — first, the Trump administration’s lack of priorities. This includes the lack of priority and callous treatment of the residents of Puerto Rico and lack of priority in the administration’s deportation efforts. For the latter, the administration is going after anybody and everybody — regardless of flight risk, danger to society, connections to the community, or longevity in the U.S. Mr. Pérez’s deportation was deferred under the Obama administration because he was vetted with these priorities in mind. Finally, the other thing the two events have in common is the disproportionate impact on the Latinx community.
- Prof. David Hernández
Latina/o/x Studies