Letters to the Editor | June 18, 2025

Donald Trump was elected with 49.8% of the popular vote in 2024 for, among other reasons, falsely claiming that the country was being overrun by dangerous immigrants. His voters need only look at the events of this past weekend to realize that deporting immigrants isn’t being done out of concern for public safety. Rather, it is being done based on hate. The Trump regime is disregarding not only the rule of law but also simple human decency. Witness what occurred in Philadelphia, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement sent ominous texts demanding immigrants’ presence at ICE’s office on short notice and on a Sunday (Father’s Day no less), clearly to stoke fear and terror. An ABC News reporter recently lost his job after posting this opinion on social media. He was wrong to post it, but his opinion was and is spot on. Violent offenders were pardoned by Trump and are now out on the streets, proving that he isn’t interested in punishing criminals, just getting immigrants out of the country. If that doesn’t demonstrate hatred, nothing does.

Scott Chelemer, Mount Laurel

I am wondering if Donald Trump’s about-face on immigration is a reaction to the large number of people who participated in the “No Kings” marches across the country. Last week, Trump told Immigration and Customs Enforcement to pause raids on hotels, farms, and restaurants, adding that the undocumented immigrants working in those locations were good people and serve those industries well. It sounded as if he was having a change of heart.

Sunday night, he called on federal agents to increase their efforts to detain and deport undocumented immigrants in Democratic cities, where, as he claimed, millions of undocumented immigrants reside. He went on to claim that cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York are the “core of the Democrat Power Center,” and that immigrants have been used by Democrats to “expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens.” It sounds to me as if he is angry at the large numbers of people who came together to protest his policies as opposed to those who came out to support his birthday parade.

Kathleen Coyne, Wallingford

As one of the protesters who proudly came to the “No Kings” march and rally, I was dismayed by The Inquirer’s Sunday front-page coverage. You missed two important things: the crowd size and the prominent national speakers who had important things to say. While I respect that your story’s focus was on the protesters’ stories, Philadelphia had a reported count of 80,000 people who turned out. As Indivisible, the lead organizer of “No Kings” events (including Philadelphia) said in a follow-up email, “We knew No Kings Day would be huge, but we never imagined just how big it would be. We turned out over five million people (and still counting) across 2,169 events in countries all around the globe.”

In your reporting you say the following only regarding the speakers and the crowd: “every so often, a speaker would elicit cheers from those who remained, or a chant of ‘The people, united, will never be defeated.’” I was there — as were thousands more — to listen to speakers that included Bishop William J. Barber II, U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, Martin Luther King III, and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.

Robin Robinowitz, Philadelphia

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I was disappointed reading The Inquirer’s coverage on Sunday of the “No Kings” demonstrations across the country. One would have little understanding of the actual scope and scale of the event if this was your only source of news. It was probably the largest such event in the country’s history, yet there were very few photographs of the mass of humanity showing up in town squares across the country. Rather, just photos of people holding signs walking down the street. There were few estimates of the size of the crowds, including Philadelphia, probably more than 80,000, and more than 5 million nationwide. I would expect another follow-up story to these extraordinary numbers and what they say about the American people’s willingness to stand up to this wannabe dictator, but alas, there was nothing.

Tom Judd, Philadelphia

As a longtime resident of Montgomery County, I want to thank Commissioners Jamila Winder and Neil Makhija for displaying moral courage for righting a wrong associated with Donald Trump’s immoral mass deportation efforts ("Montco officials change jail detainer policy“). A Norristown woman of Mexican descent was held by Montgomery County for several hours after her $77 bail was paid, allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents additional time to arrive and arrest her. Known as the ICE detainer policy, it is not a law but merely a request.

Philadelphia got it right by refusing to honor ICE detainers unless they’re accompanied by a signed judicial warrant. Montco has now adopted the same fair policy. The high-profile case of the arrested Norristown woman was the flash point, but Winder and Makhija had been considering the policy change for weeks. As long as Trump’s cruel mass deportation policy remains in place, we need more elected officials to ensure that people’s fundamental rights aren’t trampled in the process.

Frank Keel, North Wales

It seems every time there is a microphone near House Speaker Mike Johnson, he professes to pray for guidance in critical legislative decisions, but who is this deity he refers to? I was raised Catholic, 12 years of religious training, and at 71 still read a bit of Scripture each day. Common themes repeated by Matt, Mark, Luke, and John include do for the least of my brothers, feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, clothe the naked, and love thy neighbor. Nowhere does it mention indifference, spitefulness, or hate.

I wonder if the speaker prayed before he received guidance from above to kill the bipartisan immigration bill crafted by the senate in 2023-24, legislation both parties negotiated as a solution to the border crisis, measures that would have been enshrined in law the way our forefathers had envisioned our great democracy to work. A year later, a little girl, tears streaming down her face, watches her daddy being led away by masked men to an unmarked car for the crime of trying to make a better life for her and her family.

I think back to the GOP convention less than one year ago when, in his acceptance speech, the vile individual spoke of the mentally ill young man who fired a shot that grazed his ear. He claimed God had saved him so he could save America. And that’s when it hit me, Speaker Johnson’s god is the scoundrel in the Oval Office.

Jim Brennan, Flourtown, Pa.

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