Dear Editor:

Last week, a letter writer defended the deployment and tactics of ICE in “sanctuary states.” While I disagree with her thesis, she made me rethink my own stance regarding Steven Miller’s war on immigrants. Is there a middle ground between “Abolish ICE” and the indiscriminate, extralegal detention and deportation of immigrants and U.S. citizens?

Donald Trump regularly refers to “the worst of the worst” as targets for his campaign to expel non-citizens. If they are, as he claims, terrorists, gang members, rapists, murderers, drug dealers, and evictees from mental institutions, then surely they can be identified within their communities and arrested by local and state law enforcement officers. In extreme cases, the governor can summon the FBI; during genuine emergencies, the state’s national guard can be activated.

None of these conditions has been met during the current occupation of Minneapolis. It is impossible to deny that this use of federal coercion is political and designed to intimidate Democratic officials and voters. But should the entire apparatus of border control be abolished? Certainly not.

Thomas Friedman calls for “a high wall with a big door.” Protect our borders but expand opportunities for immigrants to become legal residents and citizens of the United States. Without robust immigration, we face demographic decline, a weakening economy, debilitating ‘brain drain,’ and loss of the cultural diversity that has made America truly great. Instead of being a magnet for people around the world who seek a better life, we will be ceding this influx of talent and hard work to our former allies and our military rivals.

In order to achieve reasonable compromise, our political process requires open debate by democratically elected representatives. A solution to the deadly impass paralyzing us right now might look like this: Restore the exclusive authority of local law enforcement to arrest and incarcerate criminal suspects; report non-citizens to ICE; allow their agents to interrogate these inmates and, if necessary, refer them to immigration courts for possible deportation.

This would end the murders, save us half-a-billion dollars a year, and keep our streets from looking like Fallujah.

Bill Hammond

Boothbay