Dear Editor,

We have heard reports about undocumented immigrants all across the country being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement under circumstances that are anything but routine, like the 23-year-old DREAMer in Seattle who was taken from his home and detained — despite having no criminal record. Or the woman in El Paso whose domestic abuser possibly tipped off ICE to arrest her after she received a protective order against him.

The Trump administration’s deportation force has brought fear and anxiety to Latino and immigrant communities — and their Democratic representatives in Congress want answers.

Instead, ICE abruptly canceled a meeting requested by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Then, several Democratic Hispanic Caucus members were kicked out of a bipartisan meeting — that they originally called for — with the acting director of ICE by Speaker Paul Ryan’s staff, who were acting on the White House’s instructions. Several other Hispanic Caucus Democrats were barred from entering entirely.

Trump is scapegoating immigrants, breaking up families and making us all less safe — and it is unconscionable that Paul Ryan is carrying out the White House’s authoritarian impulses to keep his colleagues from getting the answers they deserve.

There are no questions anymore about whether Paul Ryan and House Republicans will do their constitutional duty to act as a check on the Trump White House’s abuses of power — they won’t.

Sincerely,

Ben Lofton

Bellaire