Letters: Instead of hysterics, let’s focus on migrants

Submit your letter to the editor via this form Read more Letters to the Editor Instead of hysterics let s focus on immigrants Re Let s open our eyes to Trump s power grab Page A July The writer likens the fresh actions by ICE to those of the Nazis in But the target of the wrath of the SS in the Germany of was extermination not deportation Any protesters would have been dealt with by way of summary execution and the greater part of the writer s concerns such as identifications would have been irrelevant To the extent the writer wants to drag Donald Trump and his views of racial hatred into the picture I think it is worth noting that Trump has a far kinder view of Jews than the one who was in control of the SS Rather than entertain Nazi fantasies why not suggest certain way in which folks for and against deportation can get together and talk about growing a scheme for dealing with the trouble that everyone can live with Daniel Mauthe Livermore Laws exist they should be enforced I returned home from a short vacation to cold water and a gas stove that did not work My neighbors and I who live in Oakland s Glenview neighborhood made a choice a inadequate years ago to install automatic earthquake shut-off valves on our gas lines We did this to protect our homes and our region I reset this line at least once per month The primary reasons for the need to reset the valve are illegal fireworks illegal sideshows and illegally loud cars with a bass that shakes our windows The operative word here is illegal When a law is in place there is an expectation that there will be negative consequences for violating the law just as there are positive consequences for abiding by the law Good character should matter to all Debora Rinehart Oakland Money for foreign bases should return home A new analysis published by the global peace group World BEYOND War on July exposes the harm and scale of military bases worldwide Of foreign military bases in the world the United States operates bases across countries and is rapidly adding more not a single one of them demanded for by the U S general or the host population Military bases fuel the war machine heightening tensions and provoking war-making Bases occupy stolen indigenous lands cause massive environmental damage and make locations into targets for attack Instead of spending billions on bases that serve as launchpads for wars our tax dollars should be redirected toward our communities real requirements housing soundness care green force and development We need to halt new construction on military base infrastructure that facilitates disastrous war-making and invest in a livable future instead Lucymarie Ruth Oakland Trump s new law will be felt first with ICE The full devastating impact of Donald Trump s One Big Beautiful Bill Act will not be felt for years but specific of the impact will be felt very soon The drastic Medicaid and food stamp cuts largely don t take effect until after the midterms It s no coincidence this is happening after the midterms Tax cuts for billionaires and corporations will be largely invisible to the community However Immigration and Customs Enforcement is funded right now The ICE budget balloons to billion This gives ICE the largest federal law enforcement budget in the history of the republic Kathy DeFabio El Sobrante Justices set table for imperial president I understand the seductive nature of greed hatred and delusion I understand the power of fear and the desire for power I understand ignorance cowardice and cruelty But I don t understand the willingness of the current Supreme Court to discover new powers of the presidency that no one in the last U S centuries had even suspected might exist With the help of this court we are creating an all-powerful presidency something I learned in childhood was to be avoided at all costs What is happening to our country Michael Steinberg Berkeley