Enough is enough

To the editor:

Video evidence of ICE agents’ brutality has changed public opinion.  Renee Good killed in her car, Alex Pretti shot dead while being held on the ground, ChongLy Scott Thao’s home invaded and him taken out nearly naked into the subfreezing Minnesotan winter. 

The shameful use of 5-year old Liam Ramos as bait to lure his father and pregnant mother into ICE custody.  And, Aliya Rahman, a 42-year old autistic woman, ripped from her vehicle on the way to her doctor and taunted by ICE agents who “laughed at me and told me this wouldn’t have happened if I was a ‘normal’ human being” have all touched America’s conscience.  

There are hundreds of similar accounts. 

Of course, administration officials from President Trump on down have put out false accounts of such events, calling the victims “violent” and “domestic terrorists."  Unfortunately, the distorted lens through which MAGA extremists see the world allows them to deny their senses and swallow the lies. 

However, the rest of America is not so easily fooled; over 60 percent of Americans disapprove of ICE’s actions and Trump’s handling of immigration. 

Just as images of Bull Connor’s brutality in the early 1960’s led to Voting and Civil Rights Acts, ICE’s brutality will eventually bring changes.  Immigration enforcement isn’t exempt from Constitutional constraints. 

When the Senate takes up pending funding for ICE, Democrats must insist that agents identify themselves and be identifiable (no masks and visible name tags), wear body cameras, obtain warrants for home entries and vehicle stops, abide by due process, end unlawful searches and seizures, Mirandize suspects, offer legal counsel and stop detaining, arresting and/or deporting individuals solely for the civil offense of being undocumented in compliance of U.S. law. 

Enough is enough.

Joseph Cannisi