Letters

Many people voted for Donald Trump because he promised to get rid of all of those violent, law-breaking illegal immigrants so we could feel safe again. So, how is that going?

Trump announced with much fanfare that he would ship hundreds of them, thousands, maybe, to the horrible conditions at Guantánamo Bay. That has been a colossal failure. Only a few hundred passed through (flown there on our very expensive military planes). There was no need for the gigantic, uninhabitable tent, or the thousands of American military sent there to guard them. This publicity stunt cost the American taxpayer, by some accounts, at least $16 million.

Now I read that Trump is quietly dismantling the whole program. It might have to do with two lawsuits condemning the plan as illegal. Who knows why, but our tax dollars will pay for that, too.

No matter, Trump is on to his next target: college students.

Mahmoud Khalil (the first of many, as Trump described him) is a Columbia University graduate student who was detained and sent to Louisiana somewhere — and he is not even illegal. His “crime” was to engage in peaceful protests against Israel. I wonder how much that fiasco will cost the American taxpayer to undo, as that, too, appears to be illegal.

Evidently, Trump cannot find enough violent criminals to deport, and ICE is not meeting the target he set for them. Probably because Trump’s target has no basis in reality, typical of most of his plans.

And, meanwhile, are you feeling safer since Trump took office? I don’t.

Paula Angelone, Ph.D.

Southampton Village