\u201cThe banality of evil in the Border Patrol\u2019s secret anti-immigrant slur,\u201d<\/a> July 31). He invokes the term \u201cbanality of evil,\u201d coming from the subtitle of Hannah Arendt\u2019s 1963 book \u201cEichmann in Jerusalem.\u201d There is no valid comparison between the wrongful arrest and detention of a few individuals and the genocide of millions of people.<\/p>\nWhile there is no excuse for any wrongful arrest or detention, the proximate cause for the incidents Arellano cited is undoubtedly Trump\u2019s mass deportation vow and the unwise deployment of the Border Patrol tactical unit in large cities to carry out such policy. Although Border Patrol agents receive extensive training in immigration law, mistakes happen. As with all occupations, sometimes the checks and balances of the hiring process fail to identify unqualified candidates, especially when political hiring mandates result in shortcuts.<\/p>\n
Arellano implies that there is a culture of antipathy toward, or even violence against, immigrants within the Border Patrol. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.<\/p>\n
During my 32 years as a Border Patrol agent, I witnessed and participated in countless acts of kindness and compassion, such as rescuing immigrants in distress (often at great risk to ourselves), feeding hungry immigrants with our own food and\/or money, protecting immigrants from bandits and other criminals, ensuring that immigrants were properly paid by unscrupulous employers, etc. Implications to the contrary are extremely insulting to all of those who honorably, bravely and compassionately serve or have served in the U.S. Border Patrol.<\/p>\n
T.J. Bonner, Campo, Calif.
This writer is a retired senior U.S. Border Patrol agent.<\/p>\n
..<\/p>\n
To the editor<\/b>: Arellano is correct in using the phrase \u201cbanality of evil\u201d to describe the behavior of immigration agents toward those they suspect of being here illegally.<\/p>\n
That phrase, coined in 1963 by philosopher Hannah Arendt, explains how a perfectly ordinary individual, not necessarily a criminal, can commit or be induced to commit evil deeds. Arendt saw several reasons for such an apparent anomaly, among which are the following of orders without thinking and the desire to belong to an elite group.<\/p>\n
Indeed, la migra fits the description.<\/p>\n
Anneke Mendiola, Santa Ana<\/p>\n
..<\/p>\n
To the editor<\/b>: Arellano\u2019s column shows the depths to which this country, and indeed our species, has descended. Federal agents using derogatory language about persons whom they think are beneath them. Their flagrant embodiment of unsubstantiated superiority over those they accost is both puerile and vain \u2014 a testament to the inability of some people to exhibit any form of compassion or respect toward others.<\/p>\n
However, in regard to Brian Gavidia, I can only wonder as to what form of compassion he wishes others to have for him after his ordeal. He voted in 2024 for Trump, who could not have been any more predictable and transparent concerning the Republican conservative outlook on immigration. He made quite clear his disdain for anyone whose skin color or place of birth was not in line with his thinking. He campaigned on the removal of those he deemed undesirable or a burden to society.<\/p>\n
So, although a citizen, Gavidia\u2019s skin color alone should have given him pause. Maybe in 2028, Gavidia will give more thought to his vote.<\/p>\n
Leigh Brown, Riverside<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aug. 6, 2026 7 AM PT To the editor: Thank you to the American Civil Liberties Union of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":916148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[395088,2330,1582,276,29126,7129,42128,395090,358569,2449,8618,409,2961,224,5337,395089,277,2592,151107,308402],"class_list":["post-984751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-banality","tag-border-patrol","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-compassion","tag-editor","tag-evil","tag-government-power","tag-gustavo-arellano","tag-ice-raid","tag-immigrant","tag-immigration","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-other-criminal","tag-trump","tag-truth","tag-u-s-border-patrol","tag-wrongful-arrest"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117049185261733141","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984751","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=984751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=984751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=984751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=984751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}