Readers Write: Protests in Los Angeles, immigration, vaccines

Opinion editor's note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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As a military family, we are compelled to speak out against a dangerous precedent: deploying active-duty troops against American citizens on American soil.

Using active-duty military forces in a law enforcement role is fundamentally wrong and dangerous to our republic.

Service members take a sacred oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. They are trained to fight wars — not to police American communities. Blurring the line between military force and civilian policing undermines principles that have safeguarded our democracy for nearly 250 years.

The Posse Comitatus Act exists for a reason. Our founders knew military power must never be turned inward against the people our service members are sworn to protect.

We know the character of our service members. They are patriots who should never be put in the impossible position of choosing between following orders and defending Americans' constitutional rights.

This is not about politics — it's about the nature of American democracy.

We call on all Americans to reject the normalization of military deployment against civilians. Precedents set today will echo for generations.

Our military belongs on foreign battlefields protecting America — not on American streets policing Americans.

Dane and Darcy McKenzie, Mendota Heights

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If President Donald Trump was serious about getting rid of undocumented immigrants rather than using them as scapegoats or in ploys to aggrandize his power (à la California), the first thing he would do would be to put a lot more money into the budget for immigration judges — lots of judges. (And he can get the funds from the wasteful increases in Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, border walls, border military bases, etc.) More judges would help reduce the long-accumulated backlog of immigration cases using a much less disruptive process, be far more humane and honor our national commitment and law to give the undocumented a judicial hearing to see if they are fleeing life-endangering situations and therefore eligible for asylum.

Instead Trump seems to be trying to augment his power as president-king-dictator (as he would have it) by sending federal agents into Los Angeles in ways that seem designed to stir up protests, and then to use those protests as excuses to federalize a state's National Guard over the governor's objection (which hasn't happened in 60 years) and call in the Marines (though they aren't supposed to be used against civilians). Why else would Trump send sometimes-masked and plainclothes federal agents into situations where they are especially distrusted and disliked? They are distrusted and disliked in part because of their recent history of nabbing people off the street — sometimes the wrong people! — and then disappearing some of those people to faraway prisons, sometimes with flights to God-knows-where, sometimes the next morning and sometimes with no chance to contact their lawyer or family (if any). All this makes the ICE agents seem more like the U.S.S.R.'s KGB than an arm of a civilized, let alone still vaguely democratic, nation. Not to mention that free speech and the right to protest are both included in the Constitution, and that local officials should control matters unless things get really out of hand, and then the local officials should call out the National Guard.

Accordingly, we need to challenge Trump to cut the pretense and the bull excrement. Start by removing undocumented immigrants that are "low-hanging fruit" — the easiest to find — by sending ICE agents to agricultural areas, where there are many undocumented immigrants picking crops, and to meatpacking plants, where many serve as meat-cutters, and to dairies, where many are assistants. Let's see just how much inflation due to the shortages of fruits, vegetables, meat and milk it will take for the Republican public to figure out that maybe they need those immigrants a lot more than they need Trump.

Jeffrey W. Koon, St. Paul

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A tsunami of AI-generated images online and a U.S. president not only with no interest in exposing these images as fake, but worse, with a history of sharing them? Dear God, it's the perfect storm.

If the image fits the narrative (fake or not fake, who can say?), by all means, post it. Kamala Harris attends a communist rally! Taylor Swift endorses Trump! Trump in prayer! Trump the pope! Meanwhile the U.S. Army is set to march in Washington, D.C., and the Marines are in Los Angeles. Holy moly, this won't end well.

Timothy Hennum, Minneapolis

STATE BUDGET

A mistaken view of government's purpose

I don't dispute the painstaking process of coming together on a tough budget. It's hard work. Yet I was disappointed to read state Rep. Harry Niska's words as he defended the bill he sponsored to revoke MinnesotaCare access for undocumented immigrant adults: "The government is not the church, it's not a charity, and the government is not your neighbor" ("MinnesotaCare is stripped from adult immigrants," June 10).

Like charities and churches — and all houses of worship of all faiths — the government plays a critical role as "my neighbor's keeper." When faced with challenge, these entities must resist fear's tempting pull to turn inward and instead remain bravely facing outward toward our neighbor.

The purpose of government is to help neighbors live safe, productive, joy-filled lives. Allowing neighbors access to our state health care system isn't "poor stewardship." Revoking that access is. The expense comes back to our neighborhoods with costly emergency room visits, missed work and the terrifying blow to one's dignity to know that some neighbors see you as neighbors ... until they find out your citizenship status. Is that the line for compassion these days?

Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, "How can I help?" That includes a government made up of neighbors, paid for by neighbors, to enrich the lives of all neighbors, no matter their immigration status.

The Rev. Nate Melcher, Minneapolis

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I see that our Legislature has passed a state budget, thereby finally completing the job its members were elected to do. To quote Etta James, "At last." The actions of the House this session were a complete embarrassment, and I would hope they at least have the fortitude to admit this and not go on the media just bragging about what was accomplished this year.

Bob Lommel, Minnetonka

VACCINES

RFK subverts humanity's greatest feats

As the author John Green has said, out of all of the billions of words written on Wikipedia, the two that best capture the tribulations, ingenuity and success of the human species are "smallpox was." "Was." This infectious disease that killed hundreds of millions of people and so afflicted us for thousands of years was entirely eradicated through generations of critical thinkers who realized inoculation with milder forms of the virus resulted in nonlethal forms of the disease. Famously, Gen. George Washington ordered the entire Continental Army inoculated against the disease — which historians agree contributed to the independence of the United States. This progress culminated in the development and dissemination of a smallpox vaccine. Surely, the entire smallpox vaccine enterprise is one of the most significant moments in all of human accomplishment.

This is why I, along with the medical community, am disturbed to see Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s and the Trump administration's removal of the 17 sitting members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices ("RFK Jr. ousts CDC vaccine advisers," June 10). For decades, the committee has been a transparent and trusted source of data-driven guidance on vaccines as a means to prevent infectious diseases. It is always difficult to comprehend the lives that are saved because the "bad thing" didn't happen. This is, in fact, science working. The administration's decision on the committee will make it more likely for the next "bad thing" to occur and upends an important public health process that has saved countless lives.

Benjamin George, Milwaukee

The writer is a medical student.