To the Editor:

I have never experienced fascism or ethnic cleansing first hand, but what the United States government is doing in Minnesota is certainly a necessary step along both paths.

President Trump and the Republicans have unleashed a masked armed force answerable only to the presidency upon our neighbors in Minnesota. Unaccountable state agents break down the doors of U.S. citizens’ homes, threaten them and their families with loaded guns, drag them half-naked through the snow, and imprison them for hours or days until they finally confirm they’re a citizen and release them, only sometimes returning them to the homes from with they were kidnapped; others get to walk home in the snow. This is despite these assaulted citizens declaring their citizenship, often even having their passports on them. The ICE thugs don’t care. They see a brown person, so they must be lying. This person can’t be a citizen, they think, they must just be trying to trick us.

Multiple police chiefs gathered to recount stories of their officers getting stopped and harassed by ICE and CBP while off duty, every one of the victims a person of color. They all tell stories of ICE agents approaching them out of nowhere, sometimes boxing them in aggressively while driving. Once officer had her phone swatted out of her hand when she tried to record ICE’s actions. When informed they were harassing off-duty officers, the masked ICE agents often retreated like the cowards they are, knowing they’re profiling someone who has the power to fight back.

ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot Renee Good three times in the head for the audacity of not respecting his authority. After murdering her, he walked away from the crime scene, hopped in an SUV, and sped off before investigators could arrive. The government is now protecting and hiding him. The feds refuse to investigate him, but are forcing their attorneys to investigate Renee Good’s wife. Six attorneys quit instead of harassing a grieving widow. Sadly, Trump and his racist thugs will find others to do their evil work.

But these thugs are never punished, for they hide behind masks and numbers. We don’t know who is gassing our neighbors and assaulting schools, for they hide like cowards. They know what they do is wrong.

There has never been a time in history when the masked gunmen demanding your papers were the good guys. Now is no different.