As a voter in the 9th Congressional District, I’m disappointed in the editorial endorsing state Sen Laura Fine in Tuesday’s edition (“Laura Fine for Democratic nomination in 9th Congressional District”). The Tribune Editorial Board is right that the race to succeed U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky has attracted “many impressive people,” but I think the board has given two of the candidates short shrift.
I’m not sure it should dismiss Kat Abughazaleh’s candidacy so decisively. Is it because she chose to send a spokesperson to speak to the editorial board? Do I want a congressional candidate talking to a panel of journalists or protesting the behavior of Immigration and Customs Enforcement? I’m not sure.
The editorial board also should have given more consideration to state Sen Mike Simmons. I’m not sure why the board didn’t manage to speak with him in person, but I’ve been impressed with his use of citizen-based legislative councils in his district and what seems to be a heartfelt concern for the everyday problems of his constituents.
It seems to me that both of these candidates represent the future of the 9th Congressional District. What we need now more than ever are new solutions, new energy and greater activism in politics, both here and nationwide.
The old answers are obviously failing us.
— Jane Bannor, Chicago
We need negotiation
I believe it is time for all politicians and candidates running in the upcoming election to understand our Founders.
Instead of the candidates promising to “fight, fight, fight” if elected to Congress, I prefer to hear their plans on how they will “negotiate, negotiate, negotiate” to obtain compromise.
We voters have an opportunity to choose representatives who will do what they are supposed to do: Negotiate, compromise and present plans that lead to solutions rather than fight with each other.
We voters should demand Congress create an enforceable solution on the issue of immigration. Voters should be protesting in front of district offices or in Washington instead of on the streets over Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
If representatives are unable to agree to a solution, voters should demand they resign and then elect leaders who understand the Constitution.
— Rudy U. Martinka, Elmhurst
Prosecute feds’ abuses
While national attention has rightly focused on Minneapolis, where federal agents operating under draconian deportation quotas have engaged in unprecedented violence, communities in the Chicago area must prepare for what comes next: Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement returning to Chicago.
When they do, we must be ready.
Last year, the federal government breached public trust to an extraordinary degree, using violence and funding cuts to pressure governors and mayors to comply with an extreme agenda — while relentlessly lying to the public and the courts. This year, state and local governments should draw a firm line against these abuses of federal power and hold federal agents accountable when they violate state and local law.
During Operation Midway Blitz last fall, unprovoked violence by CBP and ICE was rampant — and often captured on video. U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis cataloged this misconduct in an extensive written opinion. Yet we saw no state prosecutions to protect the public from federal agents, who operated here with impunity — and then moved on to Minneapolis, emboldened.
For this reason, we welcome Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart’s public stance (“State prosecutors must hold feds accountable when they break law,” Jan. 29). He made clear that in his jurisdiction, “federal agents who break state laws will be investigated, … prosecuted with due process and held accountable in our local court system.”
We call on Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke to follow the lead of Rinehart and others such as Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner and prosecute all crimes committed by federal agents in this county.
Supreme Court precedents support this legitimate exercise of state power. In our federalist system, as Rinehart notes, if federal officers believe they have acted lawfully, there are well-established procedures for them to raise defenses to state law based on the Supremacy Clause — in court. Holding federal agents accountable will deter future abuses of power.
These prosecutions may be difficult. But extraordinary actions by the federal government require an extraordinary response from our state prosecutors.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office has been remarkably successful in confronting the Donald Trump administration’s overreach. That office should convene state’s attorneys and local law enforcement agencies and provide legal guidance. A coordinated, all-hands effort is required.
During Midway Blitz, neighbors organized to protect one another and document the federal government’s actions. Their videos identified those taken into federal custody, informed families and helped secure legal relief. Those recordings may yet bring accountability to the architects of these anti-democratic policies in Washington.
Our fellow citizens are meeting this moment with courage. Our state prosecutors must match it — by using every lawful tool to protect the people they were elected to serve.
— Patrick Hanley, president, and Kenneth Obel, executive board member, New Trier Democrats
Politically motivated
Sheila Bedi, a civil rights attorney and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s strategy chief, said the mayor’s final say on felony charges against federal immigration officers “would not be influenced by politics,” the Tribune reported (“Johnson directs police to investigate federal agents,” Feb.1).
Hell, the mayor’s entire “ICE on notice” executive order is based on politics.
— Bruce R. Hovanec, Chicago
Consider 1974 editorial
Here are excerpts from a May 9, 1974, editorial regarding our president at the time: “lack of concern for morality, a lack of concern for high principles, a lack of commitment to the high ideals of public office, … preoccupied with appearance rather than substance. … He is devious. He is vacillating. He is profane. He is willing to be led. He displays dismaying gaps in knowledge. He is suspicious of his staff. His loyalty is minimal. … It is … important for the future of the Presidency itself that it be separated from the man who now holds it.”
Why has the Tribune Editorial Board abandoned its own principles? Fear, perhaps?
— Michael Clayton, Riverwoods
Your admirable leaders
I often ask my many Chicago relatives whether they realize how fortunate they are to have elected officials worth reading about or listening to. Your governor, U.S. senators, mayor and numerous other officials have refused to remain silent not just about what is happening in Chicago but also in California, Minneapolis, Maine and everywhere else American values and freedoms are at risk because of President Donald Trump and his paramilitary.
Meanwhile, here in Ohio, we have Gov. Mike DeWine who has stated that he fears Springfield, Ohio, could be the new Minneapolis. (Springfield, Ohio, is where Trump, JD Vance and several Ohio Republicans claimed Haitian refugees were eating their neighbors’ cats and dogs.) But DeWine naively or spinelessly said that when federal agents come for Haitian refugees, he expects them to follow Ohio law enforcement protocols. We have U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno who, along with the equally sycophantic U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, also a Trump supporter, signed on to a legal brief with the U.S. Supreme Court supporting Trump’s outrageous attempt to do away with birthright citizenship.
So please appreciate what you have in Illinois. We in Ohio can only hope to be so lucky.
— Stephen Gladstone, Shaker Heights, Ohio
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