As the daughter of Muslim Egyptian immigrants, I’m used to getting surprised looks when I tell people I grew up in a small Appalachian town in Western Maryland. A town where teens dared each other to drive up to the old church where local KKK members would supposedly meet. Boys I knew and rode the school bus with would go on to become Neo-Nazis.
Ending TPS would be one more in a series of cruel attacks on immigrants in the U.S. that would rip apart families and hurt our communities.
While many states have moved away from the death penalty, the Justice Department plans to execute five people on death row.
Update: In June 2020, the Supreme Court refused to hear a death penalty case, clearing the way for federal government to resume executions. Arnie Alpert, who wrote this piece in 2019, had worked to abolish the death penalty in New Hampshire as a staff member with AFSC.