To the Journal editor:

Every day we are asked by President Trump to believe something that has no basis in fact. It puzzles me that seemingly bright people defy their own common sense to accept what the President says. He has said repeatedly and publicly that ICE is targeting the “worst of the worst,” which he defined as murderers and rapists.

To my knowledge, if a crime like murder is committed, then the local police will investigate and a prosecuting attorney will bring charges against the perpetrator, who then goes to trial and, if convicted, goes to prison. I don’t know any jurisdiction that just ignores major crimes that are committed and lets known perpetrators live freely in our communities.

When there are unsolved murders, the federal help that is needed should come from the FBI to assist in investigation. If the investigators cannot identify the person who committed a murder, how will ICE know who they are? Where does ICE get a list of these criminals that they are supposed to arrest?

Why does ICE need $14 billion in taxpayer money per year – more than the entire federal prison system – to detain the so-called immigrant murderers that President Trump talks about so much?

We all know that going door to door or stopping cars on the road is no way to find murderers. This would be ridiculously inefficient. We all know that what is happening here is that ICE is doing racial profiling to find immigrants to deport who may be law abiding. Their racial profiling has resulted in harassing and detaining some citizens who are off-duty police officers and even Native Americans.

Many of the immigrants President Trump is seeking to deport came to our country legally as students, or asking for asylum, or invited by the United States to seek safety under a Temporary Protective Status when it is unsafe to live in their country of origin due to natural disasters or political upheaval. President Trump has unilaterally removed the TPS for thousands of people and demanded their deportation, even though there was nothing illegal about their coming to our country.

Most of these people are not murderers and they are not dangerous. They are often working in hard-to-fill jobs in nursing homes, factories and restaurants. Most show up for court dates.

We do not need $74.9 billion in the so-called Big Beautiful Bill for ICE. This over funding leads to military style equipment and other excess spending, including $50,000 bonuses to recruit unqualified people and private jets for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The money spent on ICE does not make us safer or happier. It could better be used to reduce the cost of health care, or childcare, or housing for Americans. If we didn’t spend this money at all, we could reduce the deficit and national debt. Please call Congressman Bergman, who has voted for all this excessive funding for ICE, to tell him that we don’t believe the lies and he shouldn’t either.