Letters to the editor Dec. 7

Accountability needed

Every day we read about another horrific deportation, such as the 19-year-old college student arrested and sent to Honduras for flying home to visit her family in Texas for Thanksgiving. Her only crime was that she was brought into this country as a child. 

Or, an article documenting the arrest of George Retes, a U.S. citizen and military veteran who was stopped on his way to work by a line of militarized ICE agents. He told them he was a U.S. citizen. They reportedly ordered him to back his car up and as he was doing so he said they smashed his car window, tear gassed him, jerked him from his car, kneeled on his neck, shackled him, stripped searched and jailed him for three days. He was then released with no charges, but when he told the Los Angeles Times his story, he was reportedly harassed and fired from his job as authorities claimed he resisted arrest, which Retes disputes.

Last week during a Cabinet meeting President Trump called Somali immigrants, “garbage” and said, “We don’t want them in our country.” This, a reaction to the recent tragic shooting of two National Guard members in Washington D.C., allegedly by an Afghan nationalist. Our president must have thought he looked similar to a Somali and labelled the entire U.S. Somali immigrant population as “stone-cold” killers who come from the “dungeons of the Third World.” He says, “They are completely taking over the once great state of Minnesota. Somali gangs are roving the streets.” He is sending “strike teams,” to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area to target Somali immigrants with deportation orders. 

He has also paused all immigration applications for people from 19 countries that just happen to have majority black and brown populations.

Gov. Tim Waltz called Trump’s tirade “vile” and warns that such xenophobic rhetoric could lead to bloodshed. He describes how the Somali community has become a vital part of his state both culturally and economically by generating millions of dollars in annual income and contributing millions in taxes.

As ICE agents comb the streets of our cities shackling our neighbors, they are intentionally playing a game of fear and intimidation claiming to protect our country from terrifying criminals and rapists. Examination of data on ICE arrests from June through October 2025 during their crackdown in Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Boston and Chicago document only 3.25% of those arrested had a conviction of a violent crime, and 67.5% had no history of any criminal charges. While the majority of arrests are people of color, they are now targeting all immigrants to achieve their deportation quotas.

It is time we all step up and say, “This isn’t who we are as Americans. This must stop.” Of course, we need secure borders under the rule of law that must be passed by Congress. We do not need abusive bullying by our president’s private, $82 billion army patrolling our city streets. Flood Sens. Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy, and Reps. Troy Downing and Ryan Zinke with phone calls and letters. Quit being so passive. Step up and hold Congress and Trump accountable for the staggering cruelty of our country’s leadership.

— Carol and John Santa, Kalispell