Like more than a few others, I voted for Mayor Lori Lightfoot but became disenchanted with her overly aggressive, prosecutorial approach to the office. Yet her new initiative to gather information on immigration enforcement abuses (“Lightfoot starts ‘ICE Accountability Project,'” Jan. 8) is potentially a perfect fit and an opportunity for redemption and then some.
The focus on preserving details sufficient to identify specific agents who may be engaging in misconduct, as well as the facts of the incidents themselves, is crucial. The legend of the Ring of Gyges in Plato’s “The Republic” — a magic ring allowing people to become invisible and thus testing whether they act morally out of principle or just because they fear being seen and caught — comes to mind. Just last week, the Donald Trump administration decided that the killing of an unarmed observer in Minneapolis was completely justified and the officer completely immune, and it is freezing local officials out of the investigation. In other words, the administration seeks to disappear not just immigrants themselves but also the facts of objecting and protesting citizens’ deadly contacts with agents. This amplifies the policy of allowing agents to hide their identities with masks.
We know where this may be heading. It is essential to preserve all facts of such incidents to assist civil rights enforcement, hold the administration to account and guide possible legislative reforms (including clarifying that Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol do not have absolute immunity for murder or manslaughter).
As with incidents involving alleged police abuse, the details matter. Identity of individual officers may be relevant, particularly those who repeatedly are involved in overly aggressive and deadly encounters. And so may facts of whether their supervisors discipline them or encourage them. Their conversations with others (verbal and electronic) may be material to assessing motive.
Of course, these lines of inquiry are wholly blocked if the agents remain masked and thus functionally invisible, and investigations are controlled and steered to a predetermined conclusion.
Lightfoot’s new project thus is incredibly important. And her experience with federal law enforcement is a huge plus. In this instance, it may take a bulldog to help save our city, our country and perhaps the world.
— Andrew S. Mine, Chicago
An avoidable tragedy
A Jan. 9 editorial (“A needless death in Minneapolis”) and many letters to editor place blame for Renee Nicole Good’s death in Minnesota on Immigration and Customs Enforcement. I think there are a few other actions or inactions that may have prevented this avoidable tragedy. I learned a long time ago there are always at least two sides to every story.
- The officer could have let her go with no shots fired.
- ICE could cease enforcing immigration law and go home.
- Good could have not impeded law enforcement.
- Good could have gone to work or stayed home with her kids.
- Sanctuary policy-supporting politicians could stop encouraging folks to protest ICE.
- The Joe Biden administration could have secured the southern border.
- Sanctuary cities could cooperate with ICE regarding criminal immigrants.
This last one, and there are more, could even lead to a negotiated agreement between sanctuary cities and the Donald Trump administration. If sanctuary cities and states worked with ICE on the bad guys, then the main reason for these raids goes away. Maybe we could even get agreement that someone who has been here for years, works and pays taxes can stay, maybe even become a citizen down the road.
Now I am dreaming because, for political reasons, I’m not sure either side wants a solution.
— Bill Adamson, Naperville
Contrast in billionaires
We’re lucky here in Illinois. Our billionaire governor, JB Pritzker, strives to protect our rights; ensure access to good nutrition, health care, education and a living wage; and govern with respect and consideration.
Our billionaire is our fearless advocate, standing up to the billionaire Republican standard bearer Donald Trump and his congressional MAGA sheep (who bleat only for the Jeffrey Epstein files).
Pritzker’s philanthropic family foundation promotes diversity, equity and inclusion and helped bring us the wondrous Frank Gehry-designed Pritzker Pavilion to enjoy free performances with Chicago’s sublime lake views and skyline as the backdrop.
Trump’s family foundation was dissolved under court supervision after authorities found that funds were illegally used for his business and political purposes. And after Trump egomaniacally renamed the beloved Kennedy Center, Kid Rock and Vanilla Ice might be the only entertainers willing to perform at the renamed venue.
His short attention span is occupied with golf, orchestrating alleged war crimes, posting bigoted rants, and selling pardons and garish merchandise when at Mar-a-Lago, leaving our nation in the incompetent hands of other self-serving billionaires and Fox News hosts.
At the White House, the unwell billionaire rambles, spews insults at those who refuse to kowtow and dozes off in meetings. His aides and Cabinet members stand behind with uncomfortable grins.
Our billionaire in Illinois is kept occupied balancing our budget, overseeing a ban on assault weapons and criminal justice reform, addressing environmental issues, expanding access to child care, rebuilding infrastructure, fighting human trafficking, and making sure that federal immigration agents don’t get away with lawlessness and that privately operated immigration detention centers stay out of Illinois.
Pritzker is an adept gambler, and I’m placing my bet on him to wisely and fairly lead our nation, but until that lucky time comes, our judiciary and Congress need to step in to protect us from a dangerously unraveling president.
— Jane Cox, Wheaton
Trump has lost his soul
Dr. Cory Franklin and Dr. Jerrold B. Leikin’s op-ed about Illinois’ legalization of marijuana (“The Illinois windfall from legal marijuana has come at a price,” Jan. 12) concluded with the suggestion that a reporter should ask Gov. JB Pritzker, in a reference to the Bible: “What does it benefit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?” My first thought reading that was: What a wonderful phrase to use to sum up their argument.
Then I thought how apropos it would be if someone concluded an op-ed about President Donald Trump with that phrase. For what was used sort of metaphorically and hyperbolically to describe a single, local Pritzker policy, applies literally and broadly to Trump.
Trump views the United States as an apex predator and uses that power to attack American citizens (especially those who do not support him), to kill unarmed boat occupants far off in the Caribbean and take control of Venezuelan oil, and he wants to take over Greenland, even if that plan is opposed by its citizens and its government and Denmark’s. He has threatened Columbia and Mexico and on and on. Trump seems to want to take over whatever part of the world suits him — limited, in his own words, only “by (his) own morality.”
This dramatic change in the behavior of the United States, from President Ronald Reagan’s “shining city on a hill” to Trump’s apex predator may indeed “gain the whole world” or, at least, some of it. However, in so doing, Trump has already lost his soul.
The question remaining is whether the rest of us will allow the United States to lose its collective soul, if we haven’t already.
— Sheldon Hirsch, Wilmette
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