To the editor:

Recently ICE was forced to release a U.S. born citizen it mistakenly took into custody. Protests and quick acting attorneys saved him from a fate like Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The Trump regime never wants to admit mistakes. Instead of releasing Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez immediately after his mother submitted his birth certificate and Social Security card, they said he was a potential terrorist.

People are disappearing daily. Court orders are being ignored. Three months ago, this country was a powerful prosperous country because of our immigrants, because we were a rule of law country, because everyone mattered or no one mattered.

Without the rule of law businesses will have no reason to honor contracts. People will wonder why they should drive the speed limit, pay a bill or fulfill a contract when the president doesn’t have to. Our legislators no longer matter because they no longer care about us and are afraid. Our courts rely on everyone following their orders. Who will enforce them? The fourth estate is intimidated, not reporting on the large number of protests.

Unless we unite and stand together as one and say no, I fear the lessons of history will be lost. Hitler killed 6 million Jews. It took a world war and 15 million soldiers’ lives to rid the world of that evil. Through DOGE and Trump’s executive orders destroying programs such as PEPFAR and Medicaid, Trump is taking a run at Hitler’s evil legacy. What will it take to rid us of this evil?

Kelly Horton,

Lawrence