Donald Trump and maga Republicans must end the ICE Gestapo "Army of Occupation" terrorizing all Americans

Echo opinion letters published in The New York Times:

#ICEOut❗

A Backlash Against ICE’s ‘Army of Occupation’

The move by the Trump administration to remove the Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino from the anti-immigrant operation in Minnesota and replace him with Tom Homan, the Donald Trump border czar, feels like a way to take Bovino out of the line of fire and divert attention from the real issue.

The real issue is how Donald Trump is using an agency to enforce a draconian and violent program directed at nonwhite immigrants and their American citizen supporters. The program violates laws and the Constitution in multiple ways, and has resulted in the killing of two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Whatever ICE was set up to do, it has become an army of occupation directed at Democratic cities. Violating laws violently for political purposes seems like the essence of domestic terrorism. In this case, it is directed by the Donald Trump administration with the apparent support of the Republican Party.

At this point, ICE should be defunded and disbanded. Congress (including leadership by Maine's Senator Susan Collins)  should act in an adult manner to hold accountable those who killed Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti, and violated the rights of many more.

A new agency must be designed from the ground up for the stated purposes of immigration enforcement, one that operates according to the Constitution, the law and not the whim of a self-proclaimed dictator.

From Simon Cohen in Queens, New York

The New York Times editorial board rightly emphasizes that Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, and Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol official, “are lying in defiance of obvious truths.” 

Just because Bovino is removed from the anti-immigrant operation in Minnesota doesn’t change that.

Last week, in a speech to the British Parliament commemorating the coming 250th anniversary of our country’s founding, the U.S. House speaker, Mike Johnson, quoting the British writer and philosopher G.K. Chesterton, said that “every high civilization decays by forgetting obvious things.” One of those things, he noted, is the “indispensable relationship between freedom and virtue.”

Truth is the precondition for accountability. It is also virtuous, making it indispensable to our freedom as Americans. Our democracy will decay if we forget this.

It is therefore incumbent upon Johnson and his congressional colleagues to investigate the killings of Mr. Alex Pretti and Ms. Renee Good to establish the truth. His duty as House speaker — and as a member of our “high civilization” — demands it.

From T. Michael Spencer in Washington

To the Editor: Yes, the Trump administration is lying to our faces. This editorial encapsulates our current national situation.

I am a lifelong resident of Minnesota, 86 years of age. Our state is known as a liberal state and mostly votes Democratic. That apparently does not sit well with the current administration.

We are besieged by federal government forces flooding our streets, terrorizing our residents, scaring our kids. They have brutally and unjustly killed two citizens here since they arrived.

Where is this going❓ When will it end❓ Who is safe now❓

😡😞😟

From Judith Koll Healey in  Minneapolis