Letters to the Editor | Sept. 8, 2026

It was through tears and outrage that I read about Pierre Damas Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian college student who had to wear an ankle monitor after his Temporary Protected Status was terminated. As a result of feeling deep humiliation and shame, and then having to suffer bullying by his insensitive classmates, he died by suicide. It was so heartbreaking to read how cruel immigration authorities were by not removing the monitor after he begged them to do so.

Here was a young man who was completely integrated into the American way of life, doing everything right, and living the life any aspiring American student would be living. He was an honors student, played soccer, and joined JROTC. He hoped to become a doctor. Instead, he had his heart ripped out by Donald Trump’s cruel racist policies. There is and never was any “migrant crisis” in this country. It is all a manufactured racist fantasy created by Trump, who has not been shy about his contempt for people of color. The president has blood on his hands and is directly responsible for what happens to any of the 350,000 Haitians who wait to be sent back to a politically volatile and gang-ridden country where they could be kidnapped or killed.

Judy Rubin, Philadelphia

When I hear that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is targeting the “worst of the worst” among undocumented immigrants in this country, I think of murderers, rapists, child molesters — people who clearly should be taken off the streets and deported. A recent letter by reader Mark Fenstermaker chided the media for failing to recognize the success of ICE in removing dangerous criminals from our communities. He points to a list maintained by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security of more than 40,000 aliens arrested by ICE, which is literally entitled “Worst of the Worst.”

I looked at that list, and it includes many people whose only crime is joyriding, illegal reentry, or some other civil immigration violation, all nonviolent and noncriminal offenses. Furthermore, the ICE list is of people arrested, not necessarily tried and convicted after due process hearings. A recent article noted that ICE has arrested more than half a million people during Donald Trump’s second term, and nearly 40% do not have a criminal record. Under Trump, armed and masked ICE agents have little oversight or accountability, and their credibility is further tarnished when they violently arrest immigrants who have lived and worked in our communities for years or even decades without criminal offenses.

Stephen Kunz, Phoenixville, spkunz@aol.com

It would be interesting to see the percentage of Americans who not only disagree with the Trump administration’s actions, but are actually embarrassed by the chaos of the last year and a half. From the election fraud claims of the 2020 election, to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in the U.S. Capitol and the pardoning of the rioters, to the killing of more than 200 people in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans suspected of being drug smugglers. If these people had been captured and found guilty in a court of law, their punishment would have been prison, not death. The war with Iran is the latest example.

President Donald Trump has done some good things. He has closed the borders and eliminated the one-cent coin. Unfortunately, with his pledge to deport criminals, he has also deported those who are not criminals, uprooting families and creating more chaos within the immigration process. I have talked to several people who are true Trump supporters and some who are not. It seems to me we have two sets of facts for the same event. We have Trump facts and reality facts. We have met the enemy, and he is us.

Ken Biles, Douglasville

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