Letters to the Editor: Arrest the ICE agents accused of assaulting African asylum seekers

To the editor: Desperate Black Africans come to the U.S. seeking asylum. After a difficult and dangerous trip, our government greets them at the border with detention and, allegedly, abuse. Some said migrants were flown back to their home countries bound at their arms and legs, their heads covered with bags. (“‘Betrayed’ Black asylum seekers say Trump administration is ramping up deportations by force and fraud,” Nov. 27)

The officials who approved this alleged torture must be identified and prosecuted. Asylum seekers are not criminals. We are not obligated to resettle them all, but we must treat them humanely. Sadistic humiliation is always wrong.

We need law enforcement, but in the United States law enforcement is contaminated by sadistic racists. Such people must be rooted out. It’s not enough to write new guidelines for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

There will be many more asylum seekers in the next few years, almost all nonwhite. We must stop these criminal acts now.

Bob Snodgrass, Pasadena

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To the editor: People throughout the world look to America as a beacon of democracy. That’s why they aspire to come.

We have people who are walking across continents to become free in America, but instead they are detained in cages, families separated, and if they are Black, some are allegedly beaten and put on a plane and sent back to the countries from which they fled for their lives.

When did we change?

The words at the feet of the Statue of Liberty say, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Those words are being desecrated by a president who is angry because he just lost an election.

We cannot have a democracy based on brutality and hate, where one of the president’s personal attorneys calls for a former government official to be executed because he disagrees with him.

This is not the America we love. This country needs to wake up.

Paulette Mashaka, Carson