Letters submitted by BDN readers are verified by BDN Opinion Page staff. Send your letters to letters@bangordailynews.com
Most Americans never imagined the U.S. government would unleash secret paramilitary forces on its own communities, yet that’s what we’re witnessing in Minnesota, and now Maine. We are told ICE and Border Patrol exist to enforce laws, but we see ICE/BP agents openly disregard our Constitution and laws, seizing U.S. citizens and legal immigrants without probable cause or judicial warrants, using excessive force against peaceful protesters, and denying states’ sovereignty rights.
We are told ICE/BP are hunting down criminals, but we read over half of immigrants arrested have no criminal record. We are told that ICE/BP is making communities safer, but we hear Minnesotans say they are being terrorized.
Absent of any action by Congress, Minnesotans have stepped up to protect their communities and document the abuses. This includes a friend who lives in Whittier, ranked one of Minneapolis’s best neighborhoods. Recently, Whittier experienced a few days of calm after a judge ordered federal officers to stop arresting and tear-gassing peaceful protesters, but ICE/BP’s chaos and violence returned once the order was lifted.
Saturday, a Border Patrol agent shot Alex Pretti, a VA nurse, in the back, while he was fully restrained. Scores of neighbors, including my friend, witnessed the shooting. Their videos clearly refute the administration’s lies about what happened.
The U.S. Senate can stop this madness. I urge Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King to vote against the current appropriation bill if it doesn’t rein in ICE and Border Patrol, including ending racial profiling, requiring judicial warrants, body cameras, and de-escalation training, banning masks, and stripping agents of qualified immunity.
Ellen Mallory
Orono