Mailbag: Elections will show public response to ‘cruelty’ of ICE raids

I read the article, “Citizen says ICE arrested her at local park,” July 6, 2025, and it only added to my anger and disgust at the cruelty and chaos of the administration’s efforts to disappear and deport those they assume are immigrants with no due process.

I have not read of any arrests of convicted criminals by ICE. I believe that GOP voters and senators and congressmen DID vote for this. Certainly in the latest immoral, illegal bill and prior to the election Project 2025 was explained in print and in the media. Informed voters were told this would happen and now detention camps and flights are the current president’s gas chambers. ICE arrests are based on racial profiling to meet the demands of an immoral administration.

I would like to see any GOP official or voter go into the detention camps for a few days — and not be tortured because no one should be tortured — but subjected to the same containment, sleeping arrangements, hygiene accommodations and food service as the detainees.

The midterms will certainly not return these GOP officials to office.

Impeachment of the president and most of his cabinet members is the prudent way to return our country to a democracy.

Margaret Mooney
Costa Mesa

Not every student goes to college

(Re: “Once lagging in school, Huntington Beach teen welds together a solid future,” Daily Pilot/TimesOC, July 6.) I taught high school for 41 years, from 1964 to 2005 (eight years in Los Angeles and 31 years in Huntington Beach). All of those high schools had industrial arts programs. At Huntington Beach High School, we had auto shop, machine shop, wood shop, electronics shop, photography, metal shop, welding and hot metals shop and drafting.

When Ronald Reagan served as governor (1967-1972) he moved away from the “smokestack” industry, or industrial trades and over time many of the industrial arts classes have disappeared.

Not every student is going to college. Now students like Cameron Rauch have to pay to learn those skills. Shame.

Chris Ingalls
Huntington Beach

Responding to H.B. City Council decorum

Let’s face it, the citizenry in Huntington Beach is not being well-served by its current city council. The not so magnificent seven of partisan extremists has consistently placed its MAGA base above the best interests of the community — and left everyone in Surf City poorer for it.

Their incompetent ideological decision-making has run the city into the ground, creating huge budget deficits, a flight of experienced staff members in several departments and a dearth of solutions to our city’s pressing needs.

The members of the Huntington Beach City Council, from the mayor on down, have antagonized many community constituencies, not the least those who support our beloved library system. This was evident in the failed attempt to thwart Measures A and B in the June special election, an attempt that needlessly cost the city over $1 million. So much for fiscal stewardship.

The City Council has shown its anti-community disdain from the dais on numerous occasions, berating citizens at council meetings and muzzling speakers in public comments by arbitrarily restricting their speaking time. The boorish behavior of the mayor has repeatedly tarnished the reputation of our city and its local government.

The City Council has further restricted democracy and representation by manipulating or eliminating city boards and commissions, which are meant to broadly advise the council on issues, policies and concerns important to the public.

While the City Council and their MAGA acolytes may take pride in their hard-edged partisanship and autocratic tendencies, it’s my belief almost everyone else does not and that most of the community is embarrassed and resentful. The hope is that the dismal performance of the current city council and its contempt for the best interests of the community will be reflected in the 2026 local election and that a more representative and responsive council majority will come to power. The effort to act on that hope is already under way.

Tim Geddes
Huntington Beach

Civility and decorum start from the dais. Since January 2023, I have witnessed both Huntington Beach City Council members and members of the public speak and act with a lack of civility and decorum.

We rarely see council members look as if they are even listening to the public speakers and we have even heard profanity from microphones.

Members of the public have used inappropriate language and gestures while at the podium.

Audience members have been disruptive. We all can and should do better.

But it starts with our elected officials being respectful towards the public. The public deserves an apology from our mayor for remarks made and heard at the Huntington Beach City Council meeting on June 17. A city council meeting is not a locker room of good old boys. Hundreds of H.B. voters are waiting to hear, at a minimum, an acknowledgment that profanity is not acceptable from the dais.

Cathey Ryder
Huntington Beach

At the last Huntington Beach City Council meeting, Mayor Burns was rightfully confronted for his unprofessional conduct as an elected official — a clear violation of the code of ethics he pledged to uphold.

As a former business owner with 20 employees, this behavior would never be tolerated. This is not a locker room, this is a public forum.

Speaker after speaker cited his own exact hot mic remarks — such as “pieces of s**t,” “mother f—ing cow,” and “they can f-themselves” in reference to Huntington Beach residents. What were you thinking, Mr. Burns? Equally troubling is the silence from the rest of the City Council, the city manager and the city attorney. Their failure to address or condemn this conduct makes them complicit. Accountability must extend beyond the mayor — every city leader who turns a blind eye to such disrespectful and unethical behavior shares in the responsibility.

Andrew Einhorn
Huntington Beach