Cleveland, OH – The Sandusky Register published a strong editorial today calling for transparency and accountability from our taxpayer-funded border and immigration agencies. The editorial, “Ice ICE,” states:
As more than 100 migrant farm workers arrested during raids by Border Patrol and ICE agents in June continue to be processed through the system, the government’s refusal to be transparent during the proceedings diminishes the confidence we want to have in them. It diminishes their credibility, greatly. Allowing any agency, of any type, free reign without boundaries is never a good idea.
The editorial board calls for lawmakers at all levels to do everything possible to shine a light into how our immigration agencies are using our precious tax dollars:
We’re not taking any stand suggesting the Border Patrol or ICE, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, be dismantled. We are demanding our federal representatives — U.S. representatives Marcy Kaptur and Jim Jordan, and U.S. senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman — take a stand and demand accountability from those agencies.
We make the same call to state Sen. Randy Gardner and state Rep. Steve Arndt. Reform is needed to require federal agencies abide by state law, including keeping the public fully informed of its work, in detail, on the record.
Our state and federal lawmakers should demand a baseline of accountability for these federal agencies. Why should Ohioans, or any other state subjected to a federal law enforcement presence, settle for anything less? State officials should demand our right to know and demand the federal government develop a hierarchy of accountability that serves the public and the common good.
Said Lynn Tramonte, Director of America’s Voice Ohio: “From what we already know–given the massive raids on hard working immigrants, the dramatic increase in deportations of people without criminal records, and the many children in Ohio who are missing one or both of their parents due to Trump’s policy–the common good is not being served.”
Read the entire editorial here.
