Now we have a second killing by ICE agents of protestors with video footage in Minnesota yet to be objectively investigated. These videos contradict Trump’s, Vance’s, Bondi’s, Noem’s, Miller’s and Bovino’s accounts and justification for these killings. The brutality we are witnessing by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ICE agent across the country and in our NJ cities and neighborhoods is manifest.

Indiscriminate roundups of loosely identified illegals, regardless of status, including court papers, are hunted and detained abusively. Infants and children as young as five are kidnapped and used as decoys. They and their parents are forcibly arrested without due process, held in detention camps, to be deported before any legal challenges can be put into effect. Driving these arrests - profiling people of color, poor training of agents, and ICE agents’ fears that result in a shoot first mentality.

Trump said that only the worst of the worst would be targeted, e.g. violent criminals and gang members. Just one of the voluminous lies, government overreach, and misstatements that flow from Trump.

These abuses include entering or being on a military watch outside houses of prayer, schools, businesses, and entering homes with specious evidence and documentation. ICE agents also arrest US citizens.

The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says no one shall be "deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law" by the federal government. This includes anyone in the United States, citizen or not.

Other US Constitutional protections that have been discarded are explained in the Fourth Amendment. It safeguards citizens from unreasonable government searches and seizures, requiring warrants based on probable cause with specific details.

Some argue that illegal immigration is against the law, so deport them all. It is black and white with no consideration why they came here. This argument belies Trump’s own past criminality, his in-laws receiving chain-migration status, and faux proclamations about ICE’s mission, to deport the worst of the worst. We agree that the worst of the worst should go. Yet how about those without a criminal record - children born here protected under the 14^th amendment, those with Green cards, Dreamers who have gone on to serve in the armed forces, and who have become teachers and physicians, and others who do the most difficult physical labor and low paying work in all sectors of business? They pay taxes and contribute to the economy. Who have they taken jobs from and who will do this necessary work once deported? Could there be another way? Not with Congress frozen to act and Republican obedience to Trump.

Others may argue that warrants enable such forcible invasion into places of worship, schools, homes, and other public spaces. Are schools, places of worship and the like ready to challenge the legal veracity of such occupation and documents? NJ Public Schools should have contingency plans in place. Contact your township superintendent, principal, or board members for assurance that all staff have been informed of plans and protocols to protect all students and know how to verify documentation presented.

ICE functions similarly to a secret police force found in totalitarian regimes. Now citizens in Minnesota attempt to safeguard their neighbors by shopping for them, reminiscent of what became necessary under the worst of totalitarian governments. Why? ICE agents carry out arrests without due process, sometimes using questionable documents to meet quotas while threatening public spaces.  Agents conceal their identities and cost us billions while there are substantial financial cuts harming vital services like Medicaid and affordable health insurance.  They are heavily armed in combat uniforms with lethal weapons and harmful sprays. They break the law and standard policing practices. This is what is and will continue to go on in our cities and neighborhoods unless we make it known to our representatives in Congress, with our democracy on the line, that this behavior is unacceptable.

May Renee Good and Alex Pretti, engaging in their constitutional rights, always be remembered as a blessing to their loved ones and the many everyday citizens who put people and their rights and protections under our Constitution first.

Jonathan Shutman

Ocean