Dear Editor:
The recent legislation facetiously labeled ‘The Big Beautiful Bill,’ allocated $168 billion to immigration and border enforcement. This is an unheard-of increase of $134 billion over the $34 billion allocated in 2025. The $34 billion was already 36 times the amount allocated for tax and financial crimes and was at least 15 times the amount spent on firearm and drug enforcement. What are we getting for our money? ICE is trying to hire 10,000 new officers. $8 billion is set aside for recruitment, averaging $800,000 per hire. The Trump Administration wants these officers on the street quickly and has reduced their training by half. The results remind us of the World War II German concentration camps and the Gestapo.
While Trump, Attorney General Bondi and other Immigration officials continue to say they are arresting the ‘worst of the worst,’ only 8% of those arrested since October 1, have had a violent or property crime. Almost 80% have no criminal record and the remaining 12% have minor crimes, including traffic violations.
70,000 people are currently being held in detention camps with conditions described as crowded with poor quality food laced with mold and worms, impure water and limited or no access to medical care. Efforts are underway to house another 80,000 people. 3,800 children under the age of 18, including 20 infants, have been detained.
The facility in Dilley, Texas currently houses 3,500 people, more than half of them children. Children in the facility recently wrote letters and drew pictures with one 9-year-old writing, “I have been 50 days in Dilley. I miss my school and my friends.” Guards raided the dormitory, where the lights never turn off, and confiscated letters, paper, and art supplies within days of the letters being published.
30 immigrants died in ICE detention facilities last year. ICE officers killed three American citizens. ICE officers operate with face masks, no identification and with impunity. These are our tax dollars being used to hunt down, imprison and deport our neighbors and our employees. Our tax dollars are being spent to disrupt families of hard working, law abiding, tax paying people. The vast majority of them are attempting to follow Department of Immigration guidelines. To add insult to injury, some people are getting rich housing our friends in squalid conditions with our money. Congressman Tom Tiffany stood with Vice-president Vance in Plover last week and gave his full-throated endorsement of these atrocities. The situation is shameful. We are better than this.

Bryce Luchterhand
Unity