Jan. 19, 2026 Editor, The News-Gazette: As a longtime Lexington resident now living in Minnesota, I was dismayed to see misperceptions of protesters among last week’s letters.
We are experiencing a reign of terror. My brother lives not far from where Renee Good was killed, and he says it feels like a siege. For years, ICE focused on criminals, and if that were still the case, there would be broad support.
Instead we see undisciplined, poorly trained agents with no regard for constitutional rights or basic humanity violently and indiscriminately abducting people whose faces aren’t white — U.S. citizens, Native American citizens, refugees, non-U.S. workers with legal status and permits, and undocumented workers alike.
Throngs of heavily armed, masked agents go door to door; a woman snatched from a bus stop (masked men leapt from a van and simply grabbed her); a door battered down with no judicial warrant, rifles out, longtime resident grabbed, terrifying his wife and 9-year-old daughter (he was detained, flown to Texas, returned to Minnesota, released, detained again, and released — no criminal, he has legal status and had had his regular immigration check-in the week before); a woman trying to get to a doctor’s appointment, car window smashed in, carried off; a tear gas canister intentionally set under a van caught in traffic containing six children, the baby requiring CPR; peaceful observers assaulted and detained. Dozens more stories.
Innocent people are terrified. U.S. citizens of color are having to carry passports — insane! (Fraud as an excuse for the surge is deception; most of Somali descent here are productive, law-abiding U.S. citizens — police officers, healthcare workers among them.)
Law enforcement are frustrated by ICE. Clergy from a range of denominations are out defending our communities. And we residents are standing up and calling attention to unconstitutional and brutal acts. I hope you would too. ELLEN SATROM Rochester, Minn., formerly of Lexington
