Letter to the Editor: Submitted by Mark Brandt

To the Editor:

I have lived in Minneapolis for decades, though I’m always proud to say that I was born and raised in Waukon, Iowa. My current location has unfortunately provided a front row seat to the workings of federal immigration officials over the past few months. I take issue with Lowell Engle’s assertion that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents “are doing the job they are required to do.” Permit me to tell you one story.

Alberto, age 31, came to the USA from Mexico a few years ago on a work VISA.  Working as a roofer, he had been sending money home for his disabled daughter and his father. And I’d like to point out that Alberto was not “taking jobs away from American citizens” - as I write this, there are 195 roofing positions available in Minneapolis, and that’s on just the first employment clearinghouse I checked.

Recently, Alberto was sitting in a car parked near a shopping mall. Four ICE agents came up to the car, used a steel baton to smash one of the windows, and then pulled Alberto out.  They knew nothing about him - not even his name. He apparently just looked like an immigrant. They threw him to the pavement, immobilized him, and beat him on the head with that same steel baton. Then they took him to a detention center and beat him again, laughing as he pleaded for medical help.

When the agents relented and took Alberto to an emergency room, they told the nurses that he had purposely rammed his head into a brick wall. Doctors soon found head trauma inconsistent with the agents’ story.  They found eight fractures in his skull, and subsequently he had five life-threatening brain bleeds. He did not die, and has miraculously made a partial recovery, but his roofing days are over.  He will need ongoing medical care, and he cannot remember his daughter.

I doubt that ICE agents are “required” to grab an innocent man with no criminal record and nearly beat him to death, and then lie about what happened. And unfortunately, this is not an isolated story. Patriotism, in this case, means standing up to this cruel and unconstitutional behavior. It does not mean acceptance of a woefully inept, misguided immigration action.

Mark Brandt
Minneapolis, MN