{"id":266476,"date":"2025-09-30T12:22:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T12:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/266476\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T12:22:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T12:22:18","slug":"ice-narrative-clashes-with-who-is-being-taken-in-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/266476\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE narrative clashes with who is being taken in Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clashing alternate realities seem to be the order of the day, but Friday\u2019s Tribune really hit the jackpot. On the one hand, we have a long letter (\u201cBe thankful to ICE\u201d<\/a>) from top officials in Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol cajoling us to thank them for \u201c(protecting) Americans from the criminal illegal immigrants shielded by Illinois\u2019 sanctuary policies.\u201d On the other hand, we have the tale of Jaime P\u00e9rez trying to figure out the whereabouts of his girlfriend, Laura Murillo, whom ICE detained as she was selling tamales near a Back of the Yards Home Depot (\u201cBorder Patrol boats dock along Chicago Harbor Lock as part of immigration blitz\u201d<\/a>).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine that those entrusted with our nation\u2019s safety are telling the whole truth here. To give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe everyone detained by ICE is indeed a \u201ccriminal.\u201d Could the tamale seller be wrapped up in a devious criminal enterprise with the flower peddler who was also recently removed from menacing the public? Maybe they, in turn, are in cahoots with the vile band of gardeners and construction helpers being picked up at Home Depot parking lots across the country. And Lord knows what those sinister mothers and fathers dropping their kids off for kindergarten have been up to. Maybe we just haven\u2019t been notified that speaking Spanish or other non-English languages \u2014 or selling tamales for that matter \u2014 is now a national security threat or a federal hate crime.<\/p>\n

The use of manipulative epithets like \u201ccriminal illegal aliens\u201d is reminiscent of epithets like \u201cmoney-lending vermin\u201d by a certain authoritarian regime some nine decades ago. Of course, a few of those currently being detained have serious criminal records, but that seems to be an excuse to paint the majority of those snatched off the street, such as Murillo, as criminals, as equally despicable and deserving of whatever is in store for them, their families and their communities.<\/p>\n

I sure am glad my grandparents immigrated when they did. And that they\u2019re no longer alive to see what is becoming of the nation that beckoned them as a beacon of freedom and opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Andrew S. Mine, Chicago<\/p>\n

If ICE wants thanks<\/p>\n

Regarding the letter \u201cBe thankful to ICE\u201d: When one finds oneself uttering the words, \u201cYou should be thanking me,\u201d it\u2019s probably worth pausing for a moment to reflect. Why isn\u2019t that already obvious? Why aren\u2019t we thanking you of our own accord?<\/p>\n

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been around for more than 20 years. The arrest and deportation of criminal offenders who are undocumented is not new, as the Tribune Editorial Board pointed out (\u201cICE must leave US citizens alone,\u201d<\/a> Sept. 18). What is new, and what has so many of us subjected to Operation Midway Blitz more frightened and upset than grateful, is ICE\u2019s disregard for our constitutional rights.<\/p>\n

Everyone in this country has the right to due process. When ICE thwarts someone\u2019s right to an attorney, when it takes them and provides no information about where they are or what is happening to them (as ICE repeatedly has), it endangers every single one of us. Any legal resident can find themselves mistakenly on the wrong side of an ICE raid, and when that happens, the way ICE has treated detainees who are undocumented will be the way it treats us. It will determine our very freedom.<\/p>\n

As the growing number of American citizens and other legal residents ICE has detained can attest, ICE has developed a habit of grabbing people first and asking questions later \u2014 or never. Joe Botello is not the only one.<\/p>\n

If ICE is looking for gratitude, we will thank it when its agents take the masks off their faces and tuck in the shirts covering the badges on their belts, because then we will know their priority is indeed protecting us and not themselves.<\/p>\n

We will thank ICE when it can explain where the hundreds of people who have disappeared from the ICE facility in Florida actually are. Then, maybe, we won\u2019t feel such dread when we watch ICE cuff our neighbors and put them in cars, especially considering that more than half the people ICE has detained in the last year<\/a> have no convictions whatsoever.<\/p>\n

We will thank ICE when we see respect for our constitutional rights reflected in its treatment of everyone it detains. <\/p>\n

If ICE truly believes that the mission of its organization is to protect us, then hear us \u2014 the manner in which its agents are carrying out these raids and treating the people they detain is making America less safe for all of us. <\/p>\n

\u2014 Catherine Hervey, Wheaton<\/p>\n

Media\u2019s unfair depiction<\/p>\n

The media have been brainwashing the citizenry with anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement rhetoric as of late. They portray immigrants as victims while demonizing those responsible for protecting our borders and enforcing American law. Do the media realize that they are putting federal law enforcement in harm\u2019s way?<\/p>\n

Where was the outrage during the Barack Obama years? Obama deported as many as 3.1 million immigrants during his two terms in office. So much so that he earned the nickname \u201cdeporter in chief.\u201d<\/p>\n

By contrast, Trump deported fewer than 932,000 in his first term and 200,000 in the first four months of his second term.<\/p>\n

If the media want to umpire the game, they have to be consistent with their strike zone.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mike Rice, Chicago<\/p>\n

The same tired mantra<\/p>\n

Be thankful to ICE? Seriously? In their recent letter, Todd Lyons of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Greg Bovino of U.S. Border Patrol criticize the Tribune Editorial Board for failing to report all the facts surrounding their Sept. 16 raid of a home in Elgin: specifically, the failure to acknowledge that the raid was conducted pursuant to a warrant. In addition, they share that taking everyone into custody was a protocol designed to ensure the safety of everyone involved. Fair enough. Had they stopped there, they would have had my support.<\/p>\n

But they didn\u2019t. They went on to chant the same tired \u2014 and totally inaccurate \u2014 mantra of the Donald Trump administration, i.e., that immigrants are violent criminals. In fact, study after study has demonstrated that immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than American citizens. The overwhelming majority of the people ICE has detained are not violent criminals. Quite the contrary. Street vendors, agricultural workers, day laborers looking for work at The Home Depot, none of them are likely to be violent criminals, but it\u2019s easier to round them up than it is to look for those who are violent criminals. This is about meeting quotas imposed by President Trump, not public safety.<\/p>\n

Do ICE agents have exceptionally dangerous jobs? Again, not true. Research the most dangerous jobs in America \u2014 as defined by job-related deaths \u2014 and ICE agents don\u2019t appear on the list. The reality is that other branches of law enforcement face greater threats: Police, FBI agents and U.S. Marshals, for example, are seeking out or responding to credible threats to public safety. In other words, they are seeking often violent criminals. And yet despite this known risk, these groups wear identification and don\u2019t conceal their identity!<\/p>\n

In stark contrast, most of the folks detained by ICE are guilty only of being undocumented. They aren\u2019t violent. They\u2019re just folks coming here to eke out a living, usually doing jobs Americans don\u2019t want to do. When was the last time you picked crops or cut lawns? Drive through any wealthy neighborhood or suburb, and you\u2019ll notice that most of the landscaping workers are Hispanic.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Paul N. Eichwedel, Chicago<\/p>\n

Officials\u2019 pitiful response<\/p>\n

While reading my Tribune, I came upon a letter written by officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol. My first thought about this letter was two words, and they were not \u201cthank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The methods and actions by ICE personnel we see nearly every day, in the so-called name of \u201cstanding up for the rule of law everywhere,\u201d are simply not within the law nor in accordance with the Constitution. These agents do not represent my country or what it really stands for.<\/p>\n

As a U.S. citizen, I am offended by these officials\u2019 pitiful response to being called out about their despicable, unlawful actions.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mark Blank, Glen Ellyn<\/p>\n

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here<\/a> or email letters@chicagotribune.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clashing alternate realities seem to be the order of the day, but Friday\u2019s Tribune really hit the jackpot.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":266477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5386,1818,7281,1269],"class_list":{"0":"post-266476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-illinois","11":"tag-letters-to-the-editor","12":"tag-opinion"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115293228469097057","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}