To the Editor:
Re “Trump Shakes Up Immigration Crackdown Leadership” (news article, nytimes.com, Jan. 27):
The move by the Trump administration to remove the Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino from the ICE operation in Minnesota and replace him with Tom Homan, the president’s border czar, feels like a way to take Mr. Bovino out of the line of fire and divert attention from the real issue.
The real issue is President Trump’s 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 president’s administration with the apparent support of the Republican Party.
At this point, ICE should be defunded and disbanded. Congress 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 should 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.
Simon Cohen Queens
To the Editor:
Re “The Trump Administration Is Lying to Our Faces. Congress Must Act” (editorial Jan. 26):
The 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.” The fact that Mr. Bovino is being removed from the ICE operation in Minnesota doesn’t change that fact.
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 Mr. Johnson and his congressional colleagues to investigate the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good to establish the truth. His duty as House speaker — and as a member of our “high civilization” — demands it.
T. Michael Spencer 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 has been 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?
Judith Koll Healey Minneapolis
Vaccines and Health Priorities
To the Editor:
Re “Vaccine Adviser Places Choice Before Health” (front page, Jan. 24):
As a fellow doctor, I urge Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist who leads the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, to reconsider his prioritizing of individual choice over community protection.
Freedom isn’t absolute; it’s balanced against harm to others. Examples of societal limits on choice include wearing seatbelts, paying taxes, obeying traffic laws, banning smoking in public areas and prohibiting drunken driving, among hundreds of other measures. These aren’t choices we debate; they’re foundational protections.
Before polio vaccines, I saw friends and family crippled. I’ve seen preventable diseases ravage communities. Compulsory vaccination isn’t about stripping rights; it’s about shared responsibility. When enough people choose not to vaccinate, outbreaks happen. Common sense says protect the herd.
David S. Cantor Los Angeles The writer is the author of “The Book of Good Health: Destroying Myths, Lies and Deceptions; Reaffirming Truths to Achieve Total Wellness.”
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