Editor's Note

DREAMers' Nightmare

After spending a few weeks teasing us like the fate of the DREAMers was just another episode of the reality TV show we now live in, President Donald Trump sent out Attorney General Jeff Sessions to bring down the boom on DACA recipients.

Sessions said "there is nothing compassionate about the failure to enforce immigration law," which is completely untrue when it comes to the DACA program, which was a compassionate way to deal with kids who ended up in the United States because of decisions made by their parents. The DREAMers I've met are hard-working kids who grew up here and, in many cases, have no connection to their home country. Focusing the prosecution of immigration laws elsewhere in the very definition of compassionate, as well as a smart use of resources. But in Trump's America, Joe Arpaio deserves mercy while the brown kids get rounded up. Everyone is equal under the law, unless you're a white racist sheriff guilty of contempt of court. Rule of law, indeed.

Now we'll see if the GOP-controlled Congress can somehow get it together to pass a law protecting these kids or if they'll be another casualty of the Age of Trump. Danyelle Khmara has the local reaction to the DACA decision.

Elsewhere in the book: Margaret Regan brings us some great details about the UA Museum of Art's recovery of a long-lost de Kooning painting that was stolen in a notorious art theft 31 years ago; Tucson Salvage columnist Brian Smith introduces us to a man who cleans up crime scenes for a living; Eric Swedlund tells you about a great new boxed record set featuring singles from some of the best bands making music in Tucson today; and there's a whole bunch more, but I'm out of space.

One more thing: We slipped up last week and cartoonist Rand Carlson's Random Shot didn't get into the book, so look for it in the paper edition on page 3. Sorry about that, Rand!

Thanks for reading.

— Jim Nintzel, Executive Editor