To the Editor:

In her attempt to call out the concerns of whistleblowing citizens and defend the actions of ICE, Betty Filkins conveniently overlooks the recent murders of Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of that so-called law enforcement agency [“I welcome the efforts to get dangerous criminals off of our streets,” Letter to the Editor, The Altamont Enterprise, Jan. 29, 2025].

But that’s not the only thing she misrepresents. As the editor’s note makes clear, “Under the Trump administration, only 5 percent of individuals booked into ICE detention had a violent criminal conviction  … while 73 percent have no convictions at all.”

Hence the whistleblowing: to defend neighbors who are randomly seized and then receive no due process from being imprisoned or deported to a country that isn’t even their own. Nothing about any of this reflects favorably on our nation.

Filkins begins two paragraphs of her letter with the words “We all know” and “We also all know.” There is no collective “we,” and some of us strongly disagree that ICE is operating in a law-abiding manner. Nor do “we” all agree that people feel unsafe in cities because of roving bands of allegedly law-breaking immigrants, whom Filkins calls “thugs.”

For many people, it is in fact ICE that is operating in a thug-like manner, terrorizing anyone who has a skin color that doesn’t match their own and shooting in cold blood citizens who dare to question their tactics.

I wonder, has Filkins actually visited any of these allegedly afflicted cities, or spoken directly to the people who actually live there day-to-day? Proclaiming positions as commonly-accepted truth from the majority-white rural community of Westerlo, where I am also fortunate enough to call myself a resident, only reveals how some segments of our nation might benefit from broadening their knowledge base before offering up opinions.

Katherine Dieckmann

Westerlo