Letter to the Editor

To the Editor,

As I look back on 2025 I can’t help but remember when Congressman Mike Lawler voted to triple ICE’s budget starting in this new year. I offer no thanks to the Congressman, his Republican counterparts, and the president, who are using our tax money to hire 10,000 more ICE agents, renovate industrial warehouses, revive  dormant prisons, and create tent encampments in remote areas of states. These facilities are being readied to incarcerate tens of thousands of non-violent men, women and children.

This past year we have heard from Congressman Lawler countless times about the need for fixing our broken immigration system. Yes, he knows. His wife went through the system.

What haven’t we heard in 2025? 

We haven’t heard from Congressman Lawler about the daily horrifying occurrences involving masked men who may or may not be federal agents. They refuse to show their ID. There is no due process on display in the streets and neighborhoods all across our country as they disappear people.

We haven’t heard from Congressman Lawler about the masked men throwing people to the ground, punching and kicking them.

We haven’t heard from Congressman Lawler about zip tying people, dragging them, and shoving them into vehicles. These people  are often pleading with the masked men citing their lawful status or American citizenship.

We haven’t heard from Congressman Lawler about people’s children crying out, “Don’t take my mom,” as they separate families.

We haven’t heard from Congressman Lawler about the masked men grabbing people in their workplaces, after they drop off their kids at school, or as they leave their scheduled immigration appointments.

We haven’t heard from Congressman Lawler about concerned community members who, while talking to the masked men, are pepper sprayed  in the face.

We haven’t heard from Congressman Lawler about formerly thriving commercial immigrant sections of cities, that now feel like ghost towns.

Looking to the year ahead, will Congressman Lawler continue his silence/complicity as these extravagantly funded atrocities escalate? I really hope not.

Wendy Holtzman

Peekskill, NY