Immigration goons are killing American citizens for no good reason | Opinion

Tyranny on display in Minneapolis

What’s going on? Last week, two law-abiding American citizens were shot to death on the streets where they live. A child was removed from his home and placed in a detention center for criminals. How many children are in places like that now? Will we ever know?

Liam was warmly dressed for the weather with his colorful backpack and hat and was coming home after having been to kindergarten and seeing his teacher and school friends and learning good things. What he learned next is horrific and will change his life forever. They might as well have put a bullet through his small body too.

God doesn’t kill. How can we call ourselves “one nation under God?”

Wake up America! This situation is an atrocity. Unite and remove these untrained ICE goons that are terrorizing United States citizens on orders from the insane president of the United States!

Jean C Stark, Boise

ICE like a gang

After reading the article written by Grace Hase, Bay Area News Group, entitled “DHS confirms Super Bowl security role amid fears of ICE enforcement, but details remain unclear” in the Jan. 29, Idaho Statesman, it occurred to me that Bay Area history may be set to repeat itself.

It brought to memory the Altamont Speedway Free Festival, a rock festival in Tracy, California. on December 6, 1969. At the suggestion of the Grateful Dead, festival organizers hired the Hells Angels motorcycle gang to provide security at the festival. I am sure a good number of my fellow baby boomers recall the outcome as the Rolling Stones played their set. Need I say more?

David Wade, Meridian

Don’t cut Medicaid services

This is Ian Bott, and I am a self advocate in Boise, who is on the spectrum and has schizoaffective disorder. I am writing about Medicaid services and my experience.

Because of Medicaid, I’m able to eliminate most of my chronic pain, most of my dental woes, work towards being financially independent, be able to live alone in the north end, be able to have a bachelor’s degree, be able to be a functional member of society and find employment opportunities, and be able to help others as a volunteer in several organizations.

Without Medicaid services I would be a danger to myself and others, and I wouldn’t be able to live alone and would probably go back to a group home or go to jail and lose my independence I have worked so hard to gain.

I would lose my suicidal-thoughts-free streak most likely, and I wouldn’t be able to do as much in the community.

I hope that the Legislature does the right thing by not cutting Medicaid services to save the thousands of individuals like me whose quality of life is much better because of it.

Ian J Bott, Boise

Alex Pretti was like me

I, too, have been an RN.

I, too, have been a non-violent peaceful protester, arrested at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site.

I am 80 years old.

Alex Pretti , RN, is dead at 37.

I, too, ask “Where is the American justice system today?”

Maria L. Eschen, Boise

MAGA responsible for killings

Recent op-eds blaming Democrats and Alex Pretti for the chaos in Minnesota do not address the root cause of how we came to U.S. citizens being killed by US government agents. It is obvious that DHS is targeting immigrant communities based on politics instead of a coherent deportation policy.

Republicans love the chaos created by our failed immigration system because it is a huge political win. There will never be meaningful immigration reform because Republicans are winning elections due to the chaos created by the US having no workable immigration policy.

Republicans in Congress will never address the issue because they have gained power and money from the chaos. Billions of taxpayer dollars are flowing into the corrupt and lawless DHS and our wealthy elite Republican billionaire oligarch establishment.

Immigrants are easy scapegoats for the MAGA hate, power and money machine. In the end it is all about money and the expansion of wage inequality. So, if you are looking for the root cause of Alex’s and Renee’s death’s all MAGA Republicans have to do is look in the mirror.

Kurt Smith, Boise

Trump administration dishonest

Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, Greg Bovino, Karoline Leavitt, and Donald Trump lied.

Lie: DHS is mainly detaining “the worst of the worst” criminal migrants.

Fact: 73% of detainees have had nothing more than a traffic ticket.

Lie: The slain 37-year-olds in Minneapolis were domestic terrorists.

Fact: The people sowing fear and unrest by word and deed is the administration and their armed proxies at DHS.

Lie: Officers were justified in lethal force because they were under attack and feared for their lives.

Fact: Neither victim threatened an officer. The lethal shot to the head was fired at close range through Renee Good’s open driver’s window.

Alex Pretti, hands up, was blinded by a chemical agent, thrown to the ground and restrained face down by six masked men who then shot him ten times in the back.

There are no words to express the white-hot rage we feel in response to the lies and the damage they have caused.

Where is the apology to families who’ve lost their beloved ones to brutal violence perpetrated by the government of their own country?

Where are the words to help heal a grieving nation?

Marilyn Beckett, Moscow

Some old wisdom

My father, Rep. Ray Infanger, used to tell us, “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

I would ask that you investigate the number of people who were convicted of crimes committed during the Jan. 6 Insurrection who were then pardoned by the president and who are now working as ICE agents.

Your failure to check the power of a president who shows total disregard for the rule of law as well as our Constitutional rights makes you derelict in your duty and unfit to serve.

I also ask that you demand access to all the Epstein files the court has ordered be made public.

Judy Studebaker, Twin Falls