This month the Haines School lost a valuable and beloved teacher and coach, Stacy Spencer. In February, a Soldotna mother and her children were arrested and deported by ICE agents in Alaska. The eldest child is still in detention in Washington state, although he has committed no crime. 

President Trump’s immigration policies are affecting people all over the country and now in Alaska. ICE has become a paramilitary group, responsible for violence and murder in cities like Minneapolis and Portland. 

 I am dismayed that we are encouraged to fear and reject immigrants and refugees, to draw lines between ourselves and them. Immigrant communities are vital to our shared world and the vast majority are not criminals. They are the people working in hospitals and restaurants, harvesting crops and cleaning office buildings.  

 I was so moved by the words of Bishop Mariann Budde spoken during a prayer service at Washington’s National Cathedral as she implored President Trump, “I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. And that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land.”

My hope is that we can strengthen our resolve to protect the democracy we love.  Tolerance and compassion remain choices to us; we all still belong. 

Deborah Gravel