Letters to the Editor | Jan 29, 2026

Words sufficient to describe the horrors of this administration and the complicit Republicans have long left me. Our senators, though, have an opportunity to slow the imposition of authoritarian rule by voting to remove U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding from the current appropriations package. There is no need to shut the government down again if that particular funding package is cut to be addressed another day. The Trump administration has been squirreling away money in offshore accounts in Qatar, but any pushback from the Senate will send a message that democracy isn’t dead yet.

Mary Ann Hanna, Media

Unfortunately, governments murdering citizens and then lying about it is nothing new. I know because my grandfather was present when a band of government thugs attacked a group of people, killing four of them and injuring many more. The government lied and said shots had been fired at the thugs, and they were just acting in self-defense. So what we are witnessing in Minnesota is from an age-old playbook. In my grandfather’s case, the year was 1933, and the leader in charge was Adolf Hitler. I never thought that all these years later, I would live to see it happen in America.

Stefan Keller, Huntingdon Valley

The tone of the civil rights and social justice movements of the 1960s and the anti-Vietnam War protesters of the 1970s had some moral character. In contrast, these U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-related protesting mobs are fundamentally different from those times, as they have no morals and no credibility. This endless massive wave of anti-ICE protesters — their chaotic confrontations with federal agents, their disrupting of a Christian church service — is creating even more emotional volatility, rather than any unified moral conviction of the ’60s and ’70s.

Fueled by social media, the United States is now more polarized than ever before. As unrest continues to escalate, the armed military waits to get involved. We are now watching the collision of federal immigration enforcement and protesters (who I sincerely believe are being paid). The situation is now so unstable that it’s like we’re all just waiting for the next shooting. As law enforcement takes sniper positions, preparing for the mob’s coordinated violence, should we not take a minute of silence before the gunfire starts?

Carl Marchi, Holliston, Mass.

I thank special counsel Jack Smith for his calm, factual, disciplined, and courageous public testimony before Congress last week. He laid out evidence in the criminal cases against Donald Trump, including the persistent lie of a “stolen” 2020 election, without theatrics or spin.

Mr. Smith did not editorialize or inflame. He stated the evidence and the law, exactly as his role requires.

The response from President Trump was telling. While Mr. Smith testified before the House Judiciary Committee, Trump attacked him on Truth Social, calling him a “deranged animal,” and directing Pam Bondi to investigate him. That is not oversight. It is intimidation. It is retaliation.

One man testified to facts and law. The other resorted to insults and threats. That contrast explains far more about the state of our democracy than any talking point ever could.

History will take note.

Maria Duca, Philadelphia

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