Probable cause existed for raid
Re: the Aug. 2 article “Aid group: Border Patrol grabs 30-plus migrants in raid.”
The camp of No More Deaths near Arivaca was raided July 31 by the Border Patrol executing a federal search warrant authorized by a federal judge in Tucson. Before a search warrant is authorized, law enforcement must establish probable cause that a crime has been committed. It seems to me that No More Deaths took the Scott Warren acquittal as carte blanche to harbor however many undocumented immigrants they wanted.
The Border Patrol, especially during this time, immediately removing encountered undocumented immigrants due to COVID-19 concerns, are not going to ignore or tolerate known groups of them being present in the country. That was the case here.
As for the group members being restrained during the search warrant then released afterward, that is common law enforcement practice. So is providing a copy of the warrant after finishing searching and prior to departing. The warrant apparently called for seizing documents and electronic devices as part of a suspected federal human smuggling/harboring conspiracy investigation.
People are also reading…
The Border Patrol acted also to protect public health.
David Burford, retired senior ICE special agent
Northwest side
You have reached
the White House ...
You have reached the White House response line. If you require leadership to fight the nationwide pandemic, we don’t do that. If you are calling about rampant gun violence, rest assured the administration supports private citizens having all the guns they would like, including military-type semi-automatic weapons.
If you want to fight racial inequalities, we support states’ rights and will defend monuments to the Confederacy with every means available to us. If you need help with reducing or commuting your prison sentence, leave your name and number, and we will determine if you are a friend of the president. For all other calls, you will have to wait until after the next election.
After that, you will find the president at Trump Tower, Moscow.
Martin Plocke
Southwest side
‘Democratic republic’
my preferred term
You recently ran the latest version of the letter that insists we live in a constitutional republic, not a democracy: I prefer democratic republic (or, to be wordy, democratic constitutional republic). Why? Because it was the powerful families that controlled the selection of the “representatives,” or senators, in the original Roman Republic, not the general citizenry.
The equivalent, for today’s Republican Party, is a republic that does not assure the democratic right to vote, but that the right people do the voting. Whatever Donald Trump might do to retain power — note his desire to put off, meaning call off, the November election — he and his followers can still claim we live in a republic, just not a democratic one.
Richard Ahlstrom
Northwest side
Only hate can
defeat Trump
If Joe Biden becomes president, he will have been propelled into office based upon hate. There is no enthusiasm among Democrats for him. Just a guy with a “D” beside his name.
Numerous polls show 38% to 55% think Biden has dementia. Donald Trump gave up a lot to run for president. He did not have to do so.
He could have continued to be popular with liberals in the entertainment industry and expanded his real estate empire. But he gave up all that to work for America. It was amazing for a guy to become president who never ran for public office before in his life.
Since then, he has been continually demonized by the mega-Democrat news media, underwent a too-long federal Russia collusion investigation, with daily news stories implicating him or his family members in an insane conspiracy election plot. How else could he have won?
There was the Democrat’s impeachment of Trump motivated by hate, then China’s COVID-19 that destroyed the world’s economy.
Doug Lawrence
Midtown
Trump peddles fear; Biden offers hope
Recent Trump campaign ads show women frantically trying to call 911 while an intruder breaks into her home and the violence in American cities brought on by Trump sending federal forces there. Both ads blame Joe Biden, saying that he is for defunding the police, which is not true.
On the other hand, Biden’s campaign ads show positive proposals for better education, more jobs, better health care and a sane approach to managing the pandemic. Trump himself has said that the key to power is fear, and he uses that fear repeatedly to divide our country. So who do we elect in November — a demagogue who uses fear to divide us, or a man who champions returning our country, which has always been great, to sanity?
Tom Henderson
West side
Right now, it’s hard
to see the other side
I have tried. I really have. No, really.
I am a registered Democrat but have voted otherwise on many occasions if the candidate or issue speaks to my concerns. And they have in the past, but come on what the heck is happening in D.C.? Bill Barr, Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo, Kellyanne Conway, Mark Meadows and Mitch McConnell? Do they not have minds of their own?
Are they not professionals all looking out for all Americans’ best interests and not just the ones who voted them in? What happened to good old fashioned argument, compromise and consensus? Not to mention science and truth, for gosh sake.
I do not get it, but I will continue to ask questions and compare and contrast platforms, ideas, and actions and vote accordingly in November.
John (Jay) Van Echo
West side
Another voter
for Jorgensen
Re: the Aug. 3 letter “America, there is a third way.”
Allow me to concur with the writer. I too intend to vote for Libertarian presidential nominee Jo Jorgensen this fall. In the White House, I see an erratic demagogue with a big ego. I see a left abandoning its long commitment to civil liberties in the name of making people secure against offense.
They’ve obviously forgotten Benjamin Franklin’s warning that people who choose security over liberty will soon have neither. Jo Jorgensen seems like a decent and intelligent person, and the Libertarians are committed to freedom of speech and a healthy skepticism of a too-powerful government. That’s good enough to earn my vote.
Robert Fisher
Vail
A great week
for the outdoors
Last week was a historic victory for the Great American Outdoors Act, and we would like to extend our deepest thanks to the U.S. legislative and executive branches for their outstanding bipartisan support to fully and permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund, one of our nation’s most important environmental programs.
The passage of the GAOA is a realization of a 50-year-old dream across the conservation community, that of securing full and dedicated funding for LWCF without taxing citizens.
The president signed the GAOA into law, guaranteeing that the LWCF will be fully funded at $900 million annually. This legislation ensure that we all have greater access to the outdoors. The Arizona Land and Water Trust previously secured $1.7 million from the program to incorporate 960 acres into Ironwood Forest National Monument with more LWCF projects underway.
The trust applauds every member of Congress who voted in favor of enacting this legislation.
Diana Freshwater, president, Arizona Land and Water Trust
Foothills
Blame our leaders
for misinformation
This morning on Oracle Road, I stopped behind an SUV advising “Masks: for the misinformed + weak-minded.” One can only imagine the intelligence quotient, arrogance and social ineptness of this all-knowing individual.
Quick! Someone get the net and lock him/her up for all our sakes. This is the result of electing “leaders” who fail to educate themselves or lead by example, promulgate erroneous information and then delegate responsibility for reversing the havoc they have wreaked to the lowest possible level.
Leslie Platt
Oro Valley
Selective use
of statistics
An interesting thing about statistics — we can always find one to bolster our views. One writer recently cited CDC statistics indicating “only” 19 children ages 5-14 died from COVID. His conclusion was that we should reopen schools. Recent studies, however, indicate that children under 10 may often be asymptomatic and carry the virus home to infect family members, not to mention school personnel.
As former educators, my wife and I never thought of ourselves as somehow expendable. The writer further states that certain Asian and European countries have opened their schools successfully, so we should too. Those countries have much smaller and less diverse populations than America, as well as smaller borders to control.
He also fails to note that we as a nation have the fourth highest number of cases in the world per 100,000 citizens, despite having just 4% of the world’s population. Lifelong educators and health professionals, not politicians or parents, are in the best position to determine when and how schools should open. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.
Ron Locher
Oro Valley
What strange
strategy is this?
Re: the Aug. 6 article “Trump hails Arizona as model in COVID-19 ‘embers’ strategy.”
I couldn’t believe how the picture on the front page of the Arizona Daily Star captured the entire story of what is happening in the country and Arizona. We have two unmasked businessmen (Doug Ducey and Donald Trump) with a masked doctor, Deborah Birx, willing to play along with them in some sort of strategy we have yet to figure out.
I am sure these individuals consider themselves to be very important and that they are making a significant impact to get the country back to normal. However, all I can see in my mind’s eye is an observant COVID-19 standing by in the room playing its theme, “Dust in the Wind.”
Alan Barreuther
Foothills
Hidin’ Biden goes
underground
Hidin’ Biden is his name, staying in the basement is his game. Won’t take the test to clear his brain, Hidin’ Biden is his name. Ducking early debating to hide his lame, Hidin’ Biden is his name.
“You ain’t black,” if you don’t vote his name, Hidin’ Biden is his game. Gonna take your guns is the plan, just wait until he becomes the man. Will let the left run his game, Hidin’ Biden is his name.
Looking for a mate to help him win, don’t matter who, the media will spin. He won’t be going to Milwaukee town, but will keep hidden underground. No hard questions to the day, just cruising to the vote the easy way.
Hidin’ Biden don’t want to play, using COVID to keep the press at bay. To the basement he will stay, not coming out until Election Day. Hidin’ Biden or the Trumpet man, at least one is not afraid to face the land.
Laticia Lewis
Green Valley
