1. United States
2. Mo.
3. Letter

We are eight days away from celebrating the 250th anniversary of a nation founded on the radical idea that all people are created equal, that the purpose of government is to protect the rights of those it governs, and that no one is above the law. Our founders were themselves refugees from tyranny. The Declaration of Independence was not written by people who looked alike, worshipped the same way, or came from the same place. The American story has always been one of expansion, of the constant, difficult, imperfect work of widening the circle of who belongs. To strip legal status from hundreds of thousands of people who followed the rules, who were invited to stay, who built their lives here in good faith, while waving flags and lighting fireworks in celebration of liberty and justice for all, is not patriotism. It is its opposite. The USA we celebrate on July 4 is not the America the Supreme Court just ruled for. IMMEDIATELY pass a permanent pathway to citizenship for holders of Temporary Protected Status. Give them permanence here.