Letter to the Editor: Reader says she won’t feel safer with ICE in her community

Dear editor:

The right to protest and to speak out is a constitutional right. To remind everyone, we almost had immigration reform in December 2023, but Trump called the Republican congress to kill the bill because he wanted to run on immigration. None of this would have happened if Trump had stayed out of it. Now Americans are being shot and killed. I want to everyone to go to your search engine and type in, “Is ICE buying our local police.” The answer seems to be yes. We are among many being offered perks across the nation — seven so far in Wyoming. 

Mr. Ryan, an ICE training Instructor, testified on his first day that he received a secret order to violate the Constitution by entering homes without a judicial warrant. He stated that for the last five months, he watched ICE dismantle the training program, cutting 240 hours of vital classes from a 580-hour program. Classes that teach the constitutional legal system, firearms training, the use of force, lawful arrests, proper detention, and the limits on officer authority were all cut. May I be worried? Yes. This program is called a 287(g) — look it up — that the sheriff is talking about. This program was established in the ‘90s and has been used by both parties in a limited way. Now it is being used to recruit local police to become ICE agents. 

Do I want them here in our communities? No. Will I feel safer? No, especially if they can knock down a door on an administrative warrant. If they find anyone, are they going to be disappeared? Like Julia Benitez, a 79-year-old grandmother with dementia who was finally released from the Dilley detention center after nine months of being there. 

Are our commissioners, as one put it, selling our souls for money? I would say yes. We are a hardship county, and with the Freedom Caucus making cuts, it puts us in a more cash-strapped situation which ICE is taking advantage of. 

Look at our libraries, asking the community for help. The commissioners are right. Only one library, but it must be in the county seat. I worry for our community. Will a trust be broken with our neighbors? Is racial profiling to be allowed? Will that trust turn to feelings of betrayal? I sure hope not. 

Before anyone says anything, if you are the worst of the worst, get them out. Do I want ICE? Even though they might be our own local police, as someone said, we’d be tarnished by having a contract with a group with fascist tendencies. I hope not, but probably so. 

Respectfully 

Lynn Meier

Basin