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 search for car washes: What court records 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 House Depots, focusing on any Latinos they noticed, pulling stunts for social media and behaving like they’re above the legislation.
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 digicam crew — full with a hair and make-up group — whereas households had been left terrified.
The Harbor Area 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 good distance away from accountability — however the ACLU’s work has helped carry 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 in 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 ebook “Eichmann in Jerusalem.” There isn’t any legitimate comparability between the wrongful arrest and detention of some people and the genocide of hundreds of thousands of individuals.
Whereas there isn’t any 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 legislation, errors occur. As with all occupations, typically the checks and balances of the hiring course of fail to establish unqualified candidates, particularly when political hiring mandates end in shortcuts.
Arellano implies that there’s a tradition of antipathy towards, and even violence in opposition to, 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 (typically at nice danger to ourselves), feeding hungry immigrants with our personal meals and/or cash, defending immigrants from bandits and different criminals, making certain that immigrants had been correctly paid by unscrupulous employers, and many others. 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 believe of being right here illegally.
That phrase, coined in 1963 by thinker Hannah Arendt, explains how a superbly strange particular person, not essentially a felony, 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 considering and the need to belong to an elite group.
Certainly, la migra matches the outline.
Anneke Mendiola, Santa Ana
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To the editor: Arellano’s column reveals 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 shortcoming of some individuals to exhibit any type of compassion or respect towards others.
Nonetheless, 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 regarding the Republican conservative outlook on immigration. He made fairly clear his disdain for anybody whose pores and skin colour or homeland was not according to his considering. He campaigned on the elimination 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
