Editor,

In his recent letter concerning immigration, Terry Sparks makes some good points. He reminds us, for example, that President Obama deported many undocumented. That is of course true. Obama deported some 438,000 in 2013, coming close to President Trump’s figure of an estimated 527,000 in 2025. Mr. Sparks also notes that there was not as much opposition as there is now. That is also true.

But there is a good reason for this lack of opposition, and it comes down to a fundamental difference between the two presidents. Under Obama ICE acted legally, without violence, within the judicial system. ICE agents did not violate the 4th amendment by breaking into private homes without warrants or consent as they do now. ICE did not detain U.S. citizens based on ethnicity, accents or appearance including incidents where citizens are detained without cause for extended periods. ICE did not shoot and kill citizens.

ICE did not use fraud and deception, such as posing as police officers or using children to lure adults from homes to make arrests without warrants. ICE did not violate schools, medical facilities, courtrooms and places of worship. ICE did not violate the 1st Amendment rights of individuals trying to film or observe arrests, often using force to confiscate phones to prevent recording. ICE did not ignore dozens of court orders. And above all, ICE officers were held responsible for their actions.

Under Secretary Noem, we are faced with the spectacle of hastily recruited, undereducated, poorly trained, heavily armed paramilitary ICE units violently converging on our cities violated the rights of both citizens and non-citizens alike with, at least until now, no effective oversight.

It seems to me that Mr. Sparks’ call for local law enforcement to cooperate with ICE and its current tactics is tantamount to asking police officers to become complicit in lawlessness.

Dr. Bernd J. Fischer

Oak Harbor