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Strong communities start with trustworthy reporting—give to local news now! Editor, We need to call Trump's war on immigrants what it is: ethnic cleansing. Trump's bogus claim that he is ridding America of rapists and murderers simply doesn't square with the facts. The overwhelming majority of Latino immigrants who entered the U.S. without legal permission have been working here for years and have committed no crimes. The Cato Institute reported that 70% of those detained by ICE had no prior convictions, and more than 93% had no violent convictions. Many of those are traffic, immigration or nonviolent vice offenses. Worse yet, those who have crossed the border illegally over the years have no path to citizenship, which would have been resolved in the bipartisan bill, the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, that was before Congress last year. But Trump wanted to run on the issue in the 2024 campaign, so he instructed his Republican minions in Congress to kill it. Perfect fodder for his MAGA crowd all jazzed about border security. A now-viral video shows a Latino man, Narciso Barranco, with no criminal record and working as a landscaper thrown to the ground and punched in the head and neck by federal agents in California. That man raised three sons who became Marines. Working mothers have been separated from their children under murky and vague Immigration and Customs Enforcement procedures and children have been grabbed from their mothers and put in handcuffs as ICE goes further and further into the abyss of decency.... We need to call this what it is: ethnic cleansing by the Trump administration and the GOP who cheer it on, it's un-American, and simply a chapter out of Hitlers Germany all over again. It needs to stop now, and we have the power to do it. Our police and military must wake up to the fact that Trump's actions have nothing to do with safety and all about ignorance and hate....Full stop! Randy Haugen Decorah, Iowa We want to hear from you! Submit your letter to the editor and join the community discussion.

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Letter to the Editor - Calling Trump's War On Immigrants What it is