Just think, every day tens of thousands of birds fly back and forth freely across U.S. borders. When I was a child, Monarch butterflies also migrated by the thousands to trees near my house where they formed shimmering golden globes. They came from Mexico, and they were not subjected to “extreme vetting.”

Illegal immigrants pose about as much threat to this country as that annual invasion of butterflies. Why should a human being at our borders have fewer rights than a bird or a bug?

Our Federal Government loves to distract us from their failures to provide safe drinking water, affordable medical care, affordable housing, free public education, pay equity, bridges that don’t collapse, etc. by having a “war on something.” A war on drugs, a war on crime, a war on terror and now ladies and gentlemen: a war on illegal immigration. None of these “wars” are ever won, or are of any humane, social benefit whatsoever; but they provide a great opportunity for graft and profiteering by people like Dick Cheney or Donald Trump. Also, the bully-boys get lots of swell new hardware that can be used to intimidate and crush dissent within our own population.

It is my opinion that (Immigration and Customs Enforcement is being groomed to become the new Gestapo under the direct control of the Executive branch. I, myself, when entering the U.S. had my genitals groped by these I.C.E. officers, so they are obviously serving under the appropriate president! They also threatened to torture my granddaughter (supposedly a joke) who is part Panamanian, so you can imagine how we feel about this particularly nasty branch of government, which is about to be indulged with excessive funding by those same Republicans that claim to be so adverse to spending and big government. And you know perfectly well who will pay for their brutal and idiotic wall: you, every time you buy an avocado.

Stephen Carter

Lopez Island