Dear Editor,
We like to sing about the USA being the home of the free. We talk about American exceptionalism, “City on a hill,” model of democracy, land of opportunity, and we defeated fascism in World War II and saved the free world.
In 2025 America, a woman witnessed ICE agents throwing a man into a van. She demanded a warrant. The ICE guys told her to get lost. She asked for the man’s phone number so she could contact his family. ICE agents tried to slap her phone away. His family may never know what happened.
Outside a daycare, ICE agents smashed the window of a car with a child inside. The father, a chiropractor, married to a US citizen, is a respected part of his American community. None of that mattered to ICE. They dragged him out of his car while his baby screamed and his citizen wife insisted her husband’s visa was in good order. They hauled him away.
An 82 year old man lost his green card and when he arrived for his card replacement appointment he was hand-cuffed and abducted by ICE agents. His family was never informed. They finally found him in a foreign hospital. He’s a permanent legal U S. resident. ICE didn’t care.
Every day in America, masked ICE agents without identification, without warrants, with no due process are ripping people away from their lives and families. Every day more of this real life thuggery is being recorded, filmed, and witnessed. Most have no criminal record; many actually have proper documentation; and some are native-born citizens with clear proof of citizenship. No, this time it’s not Russia, China, or Pinochet’s Argentina where thousands “disappeared.” This is now America.
Really? Is this really what you want to happen here in America?
Don Morrison, Bismarck ND
Verified by phone Friday, Aug. 8 – LAO
