Trump, the Military and Plans for Mass Deportation
To the Editor:
"Re “Trump Confirms Plans to Use the Military to Assist in Mass Deportations” (news article, nytimes.com, Nov. 18):
Although President Biden has promised a smooth transition for Donald Trump after this election, we Americans should take strong steps, including mass protests and smart political strategies to oppose and stop all efforts of the Trump administration to conduct mass deportations of immigrants.
The former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and now Mr. Trump’s choice to be “border czar,” Thomas Homan, has said that immigrants can avoid the horrific family separation by being deported together. I guess he means that those immigrants who are here legally can choose to leave the U.S. with children and relatives who are being deported.
We Americans who value justice, liberty and morality must oppose and fight against the ruthless and fiendish plans of Mr. Trump and his acolytes, who have little respect for the traditional values of our great nation. The time to fight for justice is now, and powerful and peaceful protests should start now so Mr. Trump knows what he faces when he takes office.
Michael J. Gorman
Queens
The writer is a retired New York Police Department lieutenant.
To the Editor:
How will government officers find all those undocumented immigrants they plan to round up in the largest mass deportation of immigrants in American history?
Undocumented immigrants look no different than anyone else walking down the street. Which means that you and I — all 345 million of us in this country — are subject to being stopped and forced to prove we are here legally.
To limit the field, officers may be forced to stop only people who look “foreign.” Of course, many people born here look “foreign.” Many people who are foreign don’t look foreign. Will courts allow profiling based on appearance?
When we are stopped, how will we even prove we are legal so we can stay out of the planned detention camps? We all don’t go around with immigration or naturalization papers. We don’t all have passports. I don’t carry ID unless I’m driving, drinking or using the AARP discount. My only proof is my birth certificate, which I can’t even find.
Even if courts say it is legal to stop anyone for any reason, how long would Americans put up with their own government harassing them?
The government may try to ease the pain by setting up offices in every city and requiring everyone to go there with proof of citizenship. Employees will then issue us cards to carry at all times to show officers. Or the government might force us to get tattoos on our arms or foreheads so we won’t even have to be stopped.
Mass deportation will encroach on our liberty. But the sacrifice will be worth it to rid America of the scourge of “illegals,” the president will tell us. If you are legal, he’ll say, you shouldn’t mind having your rights violated.
Joe Kollin
Lake Worth, Fla.
To the Editor:
I have some questions for those who favor mass deportation:
Do you grow your own food? Do you kill, gut and process the beef cattle, hogs, poultry and fish yourself?
After the men, women and children who do these jobs are deported, will you step up? Will you?
Food for thought.
Florence England
Kansas City, Mo.
To the Editor:
Re “Trump Won, So Would-Be Migrants Hurry North or Opt to Stay Home” (news article, Nov. 10):
Immigrants have arrived on our shores since the earliest days. They have risked their lives to come despite hostility and violence directed at them, not dissuaded from their desire to escape poverty, war and disease and strive for a better life.
Deterring immigration the way Donald Trump seems to be planning may temporarily reduce the number of migrants in the country, but it won’t change much in the long term.
Immigrants will continue to arrive at our borders. Walls won’t stop them. The border police won’t stop them. Jail won’t stop them. For centuries people have crossed oceans and deserts, rivers and jungles, just for a chance to pursue the American dream.
Prohibition failed. “Just Say No” to drugs failed. So too will Mr. Trump’s war on immigration fail.
Scott J. Stein
New York
Tears After the Election
To the Editor:
Re “On Nov. 6 the Girls Cried, and the Boys Played Minecraft,” by Naomi Beinart (Opinion guest essay, Nov. 19):
Eight years ago, when Donald Trump was first elected, one of the bright young women in my 10th-grade American literature class was crying, and from the look of her eyes, the crying had been going on all morning. Not unexpectedly, some of the boys in the class teased her. She and I spoke privately, and I shared with her that I felt the same way.
Reading Ms. Beinart’s essay reminded me of that day, and my former student and I realized the extent of Mr. Trump’s success: He has divided us not only politically, but by gender as well.
Nevertheless, Ms. Beinart’s dismay at the election results is notable for two reasons: One, she is actually paying attention to the present and to the future, and two, not to paint too rosy a picture, when she is of voting age and beyond, I do hope she remains engaged and directs her passion in a way that can constructively improve the lives of all us. Even those guys who are so stuck in Minecraft mode.
Stephanie Nicholas Acquadro
Westfield, N.J.
To the Editor:
A powerful and moving piece, and eloquent. Naomi Beinart clearly represents, in her grace and articulation, the best of our young people, and is cause for enduring hope in chilling times. She is the silver lining.
Larry Goral
Bayfield, Colo.
Don’t Cut Education Funds
To the Editor:
Re “Is Education Department in Jeopardy of Shutdown?” (news article, Nov. 14):
I believe the push to shut down the Department of Education will have far-reaching consequences for students, educators and schools, especially in marginalized communities.
I appreciate that the article highlights the negative consequences that a shutdown of the Department of Education would have on gender-based discrimination policies and higher education programs that it oversees, but I don’t believe that the article adequately addresses how devastating the loss of federal funding would be for low-income areas that don’t have the ability to make up funding at state or local levels.
A shutdown would force schools to make cuts in services, staff or programs. Long-term, it could lead to widening inequities in educational access and quality for those who live in underserved communities.
Rather than shutting down the Department of Education, we should focus on strengthening and improving it to ensure that every student has an equal chance to receive a quality education.
Katie O’Bryan
Marietta, Ga.
The writer is a graduate student at the University of Georgia.
Roofless in Buffalo
To the Editor:
Re “Bills Fans Buy Bonds ‘With an Attitude’” (Sports, Nov. 13):
As a fan who has been going to Buffalo Bills games for 60 years, I think the real insult to the “Bills Mafia” and anyone in western New York who has ever sat through a Buffalo Bills game during a lake effect blizzard is that one of the snowiest N.F.L. markets in the country will now have a gorgeous new multi-billion-dollar showpiece that doesn’t even have a roof.
One has to question the sanity of the local and state politicians who make these myopic decisions.
S.J. Sherman
Bethesda, Md."
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