To the editor: I can’t get over the Los Angeles Times’ front-page image of the masked Border Patrol agents (“‘Who are these people?’ Masked immigration agents challenge local police, sow fear in L.A.,” June 24). I am the daughter of immigrants and an immigrant myself. My parents survived the Holocaust and a childhood of hate toward them for being Jewish. They came to the United States for the opportunity it would provide them to live free, to practice their religion without fear and to give their children a good life.
I am happy they are not here to see the ugliness of the uniformed, armed and masked men taking over our streets. My parents would have quickly been reminded of their past. What I see in the picture are dictatorships and authoritarian regimes. I do not see a democracy. I shake my head and ask, “Why?”
Esther Friedberg, Studio City
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To the editor: Given the picture on the front page, one could be convinced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is going after the “worst of the worst.” But have we seen or heard about any of that? I never feared that a gardener in my neighborhood was hiding an AK-47 in his lawn mower or that the men outside Home Depot were armed and ready to confront ICE. And you know what? We’ve seen no evidence that such threats exist.
If federal authorities say they’re going after the worst, then they should do that. But carrying two or three guns to confront a housekeeper is really overkill.
Monty Armstrong, Irvine
