ICE’s vigilante raids

Thank you Larry Wilson for your article today (June 25) regarding “Stop ICE’s vigilante raids.” What is going on is just wrong. The sight of armed men in unmarked vehicles, faces covered up, with no badges, is totally unacceptable. Even for people like you and I, who are not (currently) being targeted, this is not right.

I too like the one positive thing that is happening, as you wrote, “The constitutional education that is going on surrounding the protections of the Fourth Amendment.” We all need to know our constitutional rights, especially about the right of the people to be secure in their persons, and if ICE shows up at your workplace, and agents don’t have a warrant, you can kick them out!

In these perilous days, we all need to really familiarize ourselves with our rights and protections as spelled out by the U.S. Constitution, which may be hanging by a thread.

— William Stremel, South Pasadena

The sanctuary law

It seems like just yesterday that Kevin De León, the Democratic state legislators, Hispanic Caucus, Gov. Newsom and all the California voting Dems were passionately selling the sanctuary law that Newsom eventually signed into law, in spite of all the warnings about its likely backlash on the immigrant community. Republicans and law enforcement warned that if California forbade the continued turning over to ICE for deportation of undocumented felons as they were released from prison, ICE would be forced to search out illegals by going into the neighborhoods and places where they worked, like Home Depot. This would be more dangerous for ICE agents, and importantly, increase the arrests of non-criminally charged immigrants as collateral damage. This is exactly what’s happening today, and the Dems are outraged, Newsom is suing Trump, and everyone is blaming the Republicans. The Dems continue to be dishonest with the immigrant community and either lack the understanding of what their actions have caused or prefer to continue lying to them, and this includes all the Hispanic elected officials, from whom we might hope for more honest representation. So, look back to recent history, you wanted to protect released felons from deportation and forced ICE to go out looking for them even knowing they’d encounter undocumented people in their searches. You are to blame for the arrests of many of these people, not Trump. It’s Democrats who voted for the sanctuary bill and the media who has played along with them! Show some honesty, tell the people how it really happened.

— William Fierro, Whittier

Challenging work

Whatever columnist Susan Shelley’s salary is, it is not enough. Defending the indefensible is challenging, yet Shelley regularly gives it the old college try. Shelley’s June 15 opinion piece masterfully weaves President Trump’s enforcement of immigration law and basketball. Except Shelley shot an airball.

Having Trump, a convicted felon, enforce immigration law would be like having Tom Donaghy (a former NBA referee and convicted felon, who served 11 months in federal prison for his involvement in betting on NBA games) referee the NBA Finals.

Trump’s immigration policy has been all over the map. Deport illegal immigrants with violent criminal records. Mass deportation of all illegal immigrants. Exempt illegal immigrants working on farms, in hotels and restaurants. Then reversing those exemptions.

Deporting illegal immigrants with violent criminal records should be a slam dunk. But Trump once again, with his poor ball-handling skills on immigration, he can’t even make that lay-up.

— Robert Aragon, Duarte

Despotic power

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was wrong in its opinion to rule in favor of an executive power-grabbing Trump. Besides Trump making a unilateral decision without consulting with Governor Newsom, first as a matter of tradition and state rights, the president, in his normal vindictive nature toward California and its leadership, chose to assert his despotic power by not making a comprehensive assessment of the needs of Los Angeles and the state of California.

— Larry Naritomi, Monterey Park