Letters: Calling Donald Trump ‘inhumane' over detention facility ignores reality

Chicago Tribune

10-07-2025

After reading Bob Kustra's op-ed on Sunday ('Trump's ethnic cleansing is proof of man's inhumanity to man'), I felt that the only thing I could agree with was that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents should follow a more judicious approach in the way they apprehend immigrants. Nobody likes to be falsely accused.
The detention facility in Florida nicknamed Alligator Alcatraz is providing air conditioning for the detainees. Calling President Donald Trump an 'inhumane' person hardly applies when it is the president's responsibility to deal with people who are grossly disrespectful of our borders and sovereignty.
Aren't Americans who are indifferent to the suffering of their fellow Americans inhumane? Such as those living on the street or, worse yet, homeless veterans? (Those two words should never come together.) And yet, Kustra never references them. I don't know if I understand his implied disdain for his fellow citizens.
Years ago, immigrants were brought in to pick seasonal crops; afterward, they returned to their homelands peacefully. Now, some of them think that they are entitled. Really?
Last month, a letter writer suggested that immigrants should demonstrate in the cities south of the border where the problem originates ('March in home countries,' June 12). Great idea,Op-ed writer Bob Kustra speaks thoughtfully and forcefully to the Donald Trump administration's cruel response to the immigration 'crisis.' This crisis, he reminds us, would have been eased by the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, had it not been deliberately shot down by Republican leadership so Trump could then run on the immigration issue and produce the Immigration and Customs Enforcement horror show we're now witnessing. With the 'Big, Beautiful Bill' signed into law July 4, the atrocities will only multiply, and we will all feel the pain.
I am so grateful to Kustra. Republican voices like his (Kustra served two terms as lieutenant governor of Illinois) need to be amplified. Other Republicans — who serve or have served in office, hold leadership in finance, business, law or their community, Trump voters who hoped he was all bluster when it came to some of his wilder proclamations and whose values are not being represented by this administration — you have an important perspective and one that we all need to hear. Please talk with your neighbors, your friends and your family. Write letters to the editor. Post on social media. Speak at a town hall. Attend a rally. Join an organization that's working to protect our democracy and whose values you share. You are not alone.I was pleasantly surprised to read Bob Kustra's op-ed.
I worked for Lt. Gov. Kustra in the early 1990s. Although I was a Democrat, I squared voting for him and Gov. Jim Edgar for reelection in 1994 to save my job (obviously) but also because of the programs we ran out of his office: Serve Illinois and AmeriCorps (youth and young adult volunteer programs now on the Donald Trump administration's chopping block), circuit breaker (that helped seniors pay utility bills), Keep Illinois Beautiful (promoting conservation and pollution cleanup) and many others that made a positive difference in people's lives.
I was sad when Kustra resigned to become a radio host, but I'm so happy that he found his voice in the world of media after all at Boise State Public Radio. I'm delighted that he is using that platform to amplify the barbarous acts perpetrated on people in America by the Trump administration.
As to his last paragraph, ever since a below-zero cold protest on Feb. 17, I have been in the streets with fierce objections to the Trump administration. I'm glad Kustra has joined our ranks!A gunman, Ryan Louis Mosqueda, was killed at the border after he fired dozens of rounds at federal agents at a Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas. Why was this story buried in Section 2, Page 6, of the July 8 Tribune? And has there been one word of outrage from House Democratic leadership and Democratic representatives from Texas or elsewhere in the U.S.?
The efforts to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from doing their jobs has finally led to a death. And I pray there won't be more. But I doubt it.
I'm very disappointed in the Tribune for the biased way it has handled this subject and many more conservative issues. The bias shows in the number of left-leaning letters published each day. So much for being fair and balanced.
This year, we decided to give the Tribune a try, so we subscribed. I am so shocked at the strong left slant.They travel in unmarked cars. They display no badges. They cover their faces and mostly wear sunglasses. There is no accountability to local police or courts. No one knows who they really are, what their qualifications are or what training they have had. The criteria used to choose their targets is a mystery. And the 'Big, Beautiful Bill' provides their budget with $75 billion with no oversight.
It surely seems that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is becoming Trump's secret police. The question becomes, after immigrants: What group do they go after next?In recent days, I've seen posts online celebrating the use of the ICEBlock app to submit false immigration reports for 'fun.' One person joked about reporting locations that sell frozen water. Another called it 'entertainment.'
This isn't patriotism — it's cowardice wrapped in cruelty, and it's everything the Founding Fathers warned us against.
Weaponizing misinformation to harass immigrant families isn't clever — it's dangerous. It turns fear into a game and treats people like prey, simply because they were born elsewhere. Many of these families contribute daily to our communities, our economy and our culture. They deserve safety — not to be hunted for sport by bored nationalists.
But this cruelty doesn't stop with immigrants. It endangers the very Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents these same people claim to support. Flooding the system with false reports wastes resources, clogs operations and increases the risk of mistakes in already-volatile environments. ICE agents already have a difficult job. Sabotaging their work for a laugh doesn't make you a patriot; it makes you reckless.
James Madison once said, 'Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as by the abuses of power.' You are abusing liberty. And while you're at it, you're betraying the very ideals this country was founded on.
This nation was built on the backs of immigrants — many welcomed, many not. What defines us is how we treat those with the least power. The shame isn't in being outraged by cruelty. The shame is in watching it happen and calling it 'fun.'
When future generations ask what we did during a time of fear and division, may our answer be this: We stood up. We spoke out. We refused to be silent while our neighbors were hunted for sport.
Justice won't be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.
This is my outrage. And it's time others found theirs, too.I dare any reader not to see Sophie Levenson's June 30 Tribune story concerning the reunion of a Chicago couple owing to yet another Immigration and Customs Enforcement mistake as a thorough indictment of President Donald Trump and his administration's policies on immigration enforcement ('Mistake by ICE puts woman's husband in jail ICE').
Who's going to recover the $12,000 this family has had to pay to the legal system for ICE getting it wrong? How many more stories are out there like this one? How many more taxpayer dollars will be wasted to pay for these false arrests and all the costs associated with them in travel and detention? What is our nation's leadership doing?
This about providing safety. It's all about a cruel, cynical, selfish and evil grab for power and money from each and every one of us.
! Never stop speaking up and protesting. It's our only hope.An analysis by economists cited by Bloomberg News would have us believe that fewer immigrants in our country this year will mean a drop in the gross domestic product by 0.8 percentage point.
In actuality, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, illegal immigration is a $68,000 lifetime fiscal drain per immigrant.As we rush to close our southern border and deport thousands of unnamed individuals, I would like to take a moment to express gratitude to Mexico for its support during the devastating flooding in Texas. The Acuna Civil Protection and Fire Department Water Rescue Team and Fundacion 911, both based in Mexico, sent people to join in the search and rescue efforts following the overflow of the Guadalupe River.
It is important to name these groups. Honoring and showing gratitude to those who step up to help others regardless of their origins is one sign of a civilized society that recognizes the worth of all human beings. It is the right thing to do. Our leadership spends its time implying anyone with origins south of our border is less than honorable and must be deported regardless of their contributions, just to feel powerful.
Let's hope that one day, the U.S. will revert to the honorable nation it once was.There is an exceptional amount of animus toward President Donald Trump and the GOP for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that was just passed and signed into law. There is also a lot of confusion as to what the bill provides, what it removes and what increases to our already immense debt will be the result. The double talk that is presented by both Republicans and Democrats alike is pathetic.
Can we not be addressed with straight talk? Since the analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and others project that this bill, now the law of our land, will pile on much more debt over the next 10 years that is seemingly insurmountable.
Is it too much to ask our elected representatives to shoot us straight and give it to us in a direct manner so that we the people may understand and absorb the consequences that will befall us? Can we not receive a simple cash flow projection of revenue, essential spending need, interest payment and principal debt reduction for each upcoming year for a three-year period? What we get is politicians from each party putting their spin on the details to generate the reaction and acceptance they want. We're left to decipher the difference between fact and fiction.
A case in point is the concerns by Democrats over the reduction in Medicaid. The projection is that more than 11 million people will lose benefits. First is to understand exactly what existed and what the changes are. Are there ineligible people in the program? How many 'very capable' people are abusing the system by choosing not to work? Are these the 11 million people who will no longer have access to Medicaid? If so, is this appropriate in our country in this day and age?
Considering we are in debt over our eyeballs, it is incumbent upon our elected representatives to review every single dollar that has been appropriated and immediately cut every program in every department that is not .
Further, and as much as this is painful, many programs that were implemented by the federal government must now revert back to the state and local governments. The reality is that over the last 100 years, our government has become a bloated bureaucracy. It is inefficient.
It is well past time that our government becomes a lean, efficient machine.I don't recall ever being so revolted as I was by the high-fives and jubilation shown by the GOP members who just took food out of the mouths of our poorest children, health care from millions of people and Medicaid from more millions of people in addition to cutting funding for crucial medical research that saves lives.
How is that anything to celebrate and/or to be proud of?