Readers Write: Abolishing ICE, Minneapolis police, City Council, Epstein files

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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Abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement? The U.S., with tens of thousands of miles of land borders and coastline, needs immigration/border control. It should start with a comprehensive law passed by Congress, like the 2024 bipartisan bill that then-candidate Donald Trump quashed to give him immigration as a campaign issue.

Enforcement of said law would, of course, be needed. It would require a governmental body of well-trained agents, educated in immigration law and the Constitution, as well as good policing norms.

These agents should not be selected from extralegal militia members and thugs, like the pardoned ruffians who swarmed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, nor from the undereducated and/or underpaid poor. Both groups have been motivated to join ICE by $50,000 signing bonuses and high salaries.

These agents should not have free rein to treat citizens and noncitizens wantonly. Conversely, immigration enforcement would be conducted legally and respectfully. Their work should be done in compliance with the Constitution and state, local and federal laws. Judicial warrants alone should suffice to apprehend known undocumented criminals.

Immigration enforcement should not cause terror in a population, forcing them to hide, nor require less-targeted people to protest, rally and deliver food and rent aid to their fearful neighbors. There is no place in immigration work for racial profiling, pepper spray, tear gas or flash-bangs.

JoAnn Pasternack, Mendota Heights

In the Feb. 17 commentary “ICE surge should revive MPD staffing concerns,” ex-Minneapolis cop Gregory Hestness trots out the tired meme that the Minneapolis Police Department’s staff shortages are caused by the all-too-rare efforts of certain City Council members to hold our cops accountable. I presume that Hestness knows that the primary cause is the department’s historic reputation for racism and brutality. And while none of that was earned by his direct police work, much of it was earned while Hestness served in an MPD leadership role.

Now Hestness urges City Council members, not all, but specifically the ones he disagrees with, to spend more time getting to know Minneapolis cops and the struggles they face. But most City Council members spend that sort of effort getting to know their constituents and the struggles they face — especially now in the aftermath of the ICE invasion. And unfortunately, few of our cops are constituents of any City Council member, because only a small minority are Minneapolis residents.

John K. Trepp, Minneapolis

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The department appears to be recovering from the dark days following George Floyd’s murder, with a chief who has dedicated a chapter of his life to improving the culture and conduct of the department and with officers who appear willing to follow his lead. Their generally admirable conduct under the siege of Operation Metro Surge has provided a reassuring contrast to the indecent and unlawful behavior of federal immigration agents, and local police officers deserve the city’s admiration for their dedication to the welfare of its residents.

The Minneapolis City Council has, for its part, partially recovered its senses after its dalliance with the silliness of “defund the police” in 2020. While they have begrudgingly moved to a position of tepid support of the Police Department and its chief, they seem not to have fully absorbed either the lessons from that earlier time or the perspective of the voters who placed them in office.

The council too often seems in need of a basic lesson in civics, of a reminder that police are not some necessary evil to be tolerated, but rather a vital and valued bulwark of the rule of law. The comprehensive and effective pursuit of the law enforcement mission underpins everything from residents’ sense of safety and security, to business and tourism, to the social fabric so central to what makes Minneapolis special.

The council needs to realize that it still owns the legacy of its previous bungling, which contributed to decimation of the Police Department’s ranks. Council members can show evidence of lessons learned by properly funding the department in the future, including proper accounting for the dramatic increase in overtime pay required by the extraordinary circumstances of the past few months. If they choose not to, they will be flirting with a notion that is just as dangerous as “defund the police”: that an understaffed, underfunded and overworked Police Department is somehow, inexplicably, a safe one.

John Ibele, Minneapolis

According to the article, “Jon Erik Haines, an attorney representing the hospitality union, argued ... [that the] Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled that cities have ‘extremely broad’ power to deny license renewals to promote a city’s general welfare as long as it’s not unreasonable, arbitrary, capricious or fraudulent.” But isn’t that what denying licensing to these two hotels is? Arbitrary and capricious? They weren’t the only hotels that housed ICE agents. How does damaging two businesses, and potentially putting all their employees out of work, make sense to anyone with an ounce of common sense?

In a previous meeting, committee chair Aurin Chowdhury mentioned that a Border Patrol agent was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving. Fine! Then prosecute that crime! Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water.

Teresa Maki, Minnetonka

Ka Vang makes a weak argument shaming all Latino Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents for the work they do in arresting Latinos, an argument that makes little sense (“Why do so many Latinos join ICE and the Border Patrol?” Strib Voices, Feb. 15). That might be compared to wondering how white police officers can arrest white criminals, how Black officers can arrest Black criminals, why white Ukrainian soldiers kill white Russian soldiers, etc.

All these immigration agents are trained, paid well and expected to enforce the laws of the land. They did the work to enter our country legally, maintain their legal status to stay employed in the U.S. and uphold their duty to enforce our laws against those who entered our country illegally, did not maintain any legal status and/or committed serious crimes. While Operation Metro Surge went way overboard, beyond reason, due to our leaders’ lack of cooperation in maintaining focus on the worst of the worst, we are better off without the criminals who were deported.

The Star Tribune article “Judge: ICE ‘failed to plan’ for detainees’ rights” (Feb. 14) quoted Judge Nancy Brasel saying, “The Constitution does not permit the government to arrest thousands of individuals and then disregard their constitutional rights because it would be too challenging to honor those rights.”

When asked for a response, the Department of Homeland Security repeated a statement it had sent earlier to the Minnesota Star Tribune that said, in part, “No lawbreakers in the history of human civilization have been treated better than illegal aliens in the United States.”

Really? What about Ghislaine Maxwell?