To the editor: Thanks to the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California for exposing the reality about President Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids (“Racial slurs and a Google seek for automotive washes: What court docket data reveal about L.A. immigration raids,” July 29). The declare that they focused harmful criminals was at all times a sham — and ICE brokers’ personal texts show it.
They weren’t methodically monitoring recognized criminals. They had been Googling the closest Dwelling Depots, concentrating on any Latinos they noticed, pulling stunts for social media and behaving like they’re above the regulation.
We’ve seen it firsthand. Final June, I responded to an ICE raid in Huntington Park the place then-Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem had a complete digital camera crew — full with a hair and make-up crew — whereas households had been left terrified.
The Harbor Space Peace Patrol documented ICE brokers on Terminal Island swapping license plates and even eradicating them from their autos all collectively.
These raids have been essentially the most sickening abuse of presidency energy in my lifetime. We’re a great distance away from accountability — however the ACLU’s work has helped deliver the reality to gentle.
Janice Hahn, San Pedro
This author is a Los Angeles County supervisor.
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To the editor: Gustavo Arellano’s inflammatory column in regards to the U.S. Border Patrol is extraordinarily illogical and insulting (“The banality of evil within the Border Patrol’s secret anti-immigrant slur,” July 31). He invokes the time period “banality of evil,” coming from the subtitle of Hannah Arendt’s 1963 guide “Eichmann in Jerusalem.” There is no such thing as a legitimate comparability between the wrongful arrest and detention of some people and the genocide of hundreds of thousands of individuals.
Whereas there is no such thing as a excuse for any wrongful arrest or detention, the proximate trigger for the incidents Arellano cited is undoubtedly Trump’s mass deportation vow and the unwise deployment of the Border Patrol tactical unit in giant cities to hold out such coverage. Though Border Patrol brokers obtain intensive coaching in immigration regulation, errors occur. As with all occupations, generally the checks and balances of the hiring course of fail to establish unqualified candidates, particularly when political hiring mandates lead to shortcuts.
Arellano implies that there’s a tradition of antipathy towards, and even violence towards, immigrants throughout the Border Patrol. In actuality, nothing could possibly be farther from the reality.
Throughout my 32 years as a Border Patrol agent, I witnessed and took part in numerous acts of kindness and compassion, akin to rescuing immigrants in misery (usually at nice threat to ourselves), feeding hungry immigrants with our personal meals and/or cash, defending immigrants from bandits and different criminals, guaranteeing that immigrants had been correctly paid by unscrupulous employers, and so forth. Implications on the contrary are extraordinarily insulting to all of those that honorably, bravely and compassionately serve or have served within the U.S. Border Patrol.
T.J. Bonner, Campo, Calif.
This author is a retired senior U.S. Border Patrol agent.
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To the editor: Arellano is right in utilizing the phrase “banality of evil” to explain the conduct of immigration brokers towards these they think of being right here illegally.
That phrase, coined in 1963 by thinker Hannah Arendt, explains how a wonderfully abnormal particular person, not essentially a prison, can commit or be induced to commit evil deeds. Arendt noticed a number of causes for such an obvious anomaly, amongst that are the next of orders with out pondering and the need to belong to an elite group.
Certainly, la migra suits the outline.
Anneke Mendiola, Santa Ana
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To the editor: Arellano’s column exhibits the depths to which this nation, and certainly our species, has descended. Federal brokers utilizing derogatory language about individuals whom they assume are beneath them. Their flagrant embodiment of unsubstantiated superiority over these they accost is each puerile and useless — a testomony to the lack of some folks to exhibit any type of compassion or respect towards others.
Nevertheless, in regard to Brian Gavidia, I can solely marvel as to what type of compassion he needs others to have for him after his ordeal. He voted in 2024 for Trump, who couldn’t have been any extra predictable and clear in regards to the Republican conservative outlook on immigration. He made fairly clear his disdain for anybody whose pores and skin colour or hometown was not consistent with his pondering. He campaigned on the removing of these he deemed undesirable or a burden to society.
So, though a citizen, Gavidia’s pores and skin colour alone ought to have given him pause. Perhaps in 2028, Gavidia will give extra thought to his vote.
Leigh Brown, Riverside
