Readers Write: Immigration, tragedy and Christmas carols

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

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Mary O’Brien McAdaragh’s question has a simple answer: Tell it like it is (“How is an Annunciation parent to write a Christmas card?” Strib Voices, Dec. 21). Stop coding tragedy in terms that obscure the brutal truth. Stop filling the photo captions of family portraits with vacuous nonsense. Stop pretending that things are all right. Things are not all right. The solstice is dark for a reason. Our collective amnesia and denial dims the light of positive solutions that can and will move us toward a time when kids can attend school without the fear of death.

Think it cannot happen in your community? There are gangs of armed thugs roaming around the Twin Cities at this moment. Residents are afraid to visit grocery stores and other community centers because they might get thrown into a snowbank, handcuffed and disappeared without a trace. Refugees are your neighbors who have had enough of terror and decide to leave home for safer places. Until recently this was right here. No more.

It’s really nice to hear that someone’s vacation was a restful, happy period. Thanks for the memories. Now it’s time to clean the house of criminals, know-nothings, ne’er-do-wells, hangers on and fear-mongering bottom-feeders. Let the sun rise on leadership that will take on this dystopia and do things we know need to be done. Next year’s card can tell the story if we are willing to write it.

George Hutchinson, Minneapolis

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Another protester says that human migration is a natural act that shouldn’t be restricted by national origin. That may be her opinion, but the U.S. is a country of laws, and we have laws regarding immigration. If people don’t agree with the immigration laws, they should work to change them, not protest when the law is enforced.

James Brandt, New Brighton

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My wife (77 years old) and me (70 years old) protested on Saturday against ICE. We didn’t agree with all the messages articulated at the protest. In fact, we support ICE in enforcing the law. What we are so disturbed about is the way ICE is doing it: masked agents, unmarked cars, accessing properties without warrants, sweeping up citizens who have every right to be here, not listening to citizens when they try to show proof of citizenship, arresting innocent, noninterfering bystanders watching ICE work and closed-courtroom immigration proceedings.

Michael Braman, Minneapolis

The very best way Minnesotans can help our neighbors and our state is by attending Minnesota precinct caucuses — both parties — the evening of Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026.

Otherwise, Saturday’s protest means very little.

Karl Olson, St. Louis Park

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As a teacher of second-language learners at the elementary level, I see the impact of Operation Metro Surge first hand. It looks like parents afraid to leave their homes to go to work, to shop or to take their kids to the bus stop and parents terrified of being separated from their children.

The rules of our immigration system have been changed in real time. Most immigrants came into this country and have followed the rules: They have gone to their immigration hearings; they have qualified for work permits. They expected to have the opportunity to argue their cases in court. Now they fear being hunted down by masked men and jailed.

Secure the border. Deport violent criminals. But to the immigrants who are here, working and following our laws, where is the justice and humanity in what is happening?

Rebecca Phelan, St. Louis Park

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Consider this holiday horror movie plot. Stalkers invade the city at Christmastime. They are armed and masked, grabbing dark-skinned people seemingly at random. Some of those people are disappeared — shackled and taken off with their families never knowing their whereabouts. Rumor has it that they’ve been taken far away to torture prisons, perhaps even in other countries. Children are left without parents. The city police are not to be found. Vulnerable people are afraid to leave their homes for school, work or food. The local businesses also suffer.

Meanwhile, some folks cheer on this process. Some even enjoy chuckling about the torture prisons as they enjoy their feasts and gatherings. They don’t realize that the stalkers’ power grows with every grab, and that those horrors will eventually reach their own doorsteps.

How about this title? “Ha Ha Ha, Merry Terror Christmas, Ha(rm,) Ha(rm,) Ha(rm).”

Would that this present reality occurring in my neighborhood was actually a movie that we can turn off!

Amy Blumenshine, Minneapolis

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Harald Eriksen, Brookyln Park

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I read “ICE operations rattle Twin Cities” in the Dec. 21 newspaper. Chief O’Hara is a hero. He’s a tough New Jersey guy who first came to Minneapolis during the post-George Floyd morass. He’s handled it all with a calm and class that shows his true character.

Now we have this ICE fiasco. O’Hara could easily have remained silent but instead chose to speak the truth. We all know these guys are literally stormtroopers tearing our community apart. So O’Hara, the tough guy from out east, stands up to the nation and speaks the truth. This man is a true hero. For the record, so is our mayor, Jacob Frey, and most of the the Twin Cities citizens who reject this divisive poison and understand we are all in this together.

Jon Balch, Edina