To the editor:
The Trump Administration wants information on most federal funding for 14 states and Washington, D.C. All 14 voted against the president in 2024. All but Minnesota are controlled by Democratic legislatures. Only Vermont has a Republican governor.
In a January speech, the President said, “Starting Feb. 1, we’re not making any payments to sanctuary cities or states having sanctuary cities, because they do everything possible to protect criminals at the expense of American citizens and it breeds fraud and crime and all of the other problems that come. So we’re not making any payment to anybody that supports sanctuary cities.”
A January memo asks for details about grants, loans and other federal funds to those 14 jurisdictions and their local governments, institutions of higher education and nonprofit organizations. The memo says, “This is a data-gathering exercise only. It does not involve withholding funds, and therefore does not violate any court order.”
What comes next is unknown. It’s the tip of an iceberg of efforts to deep-freeze dissent. Minnesota already shivers from ICE and Border Patrol actions that ended in two US citizen deaths.
Entertainment must conform. After the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show, President Trump slammed Bad Bunny’s performance on Truth Social as “absolutely terrible,” “one of the worst, EVER,” and a “slap in the face” to the US. He criticized the dancing and wrote, “nobody understands a word.” His anger seems focused on using Spanish and celebrating Puerto Rican culture.
Even children get trapped by attempts to erase the unfamiliar. Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, asylum seekers from Ecuador, were detained at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, an ICE facility that holds many families with minors.
They were apprehended, in Minneapolis, when Liam arrived home from preschool. Liam wore his bunny hat, while ICE agents used him to try to lure other immigrants out of their homes.
Fred Biery, a federal district judge in Texas, let them go. Part of what the judge wrote is:
“Before the Court is the petition of asylum seeker Adrian Conejo Arias and his five-year-old son for protection of the Great Writ of habeas corpus. They seek nothing more than some modicum of due process and the rule of law.
“The government has responded. The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.
“Apparent also is the government’s ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence. Thirty-three-year-old Thomas Jefferson enumerated grievances against a would-be authoritarian king over our nascent nation.
“Among others were:
1. “He has sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People.
2. “He has excited domestic Insurrection among us.
3. “For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us.
4. “He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our Legislatures.”
“We the people” are hearing echos of that history.
“And then there is that pesky inconvenience called the Fourth Amendment: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and persons or things to be seized. U.S. CONST. amend. IV.
“Civics lesson to the government: Administrative warrants issued by the executive branch to itself do not pass probable cause muster. That is called the fox guarding the henhouse. The Constitution requires an independent judicial officer.
“Accordingly, the Court finds that the Constitution of these United States trumps this administration’s detention of petitioner Adrian Conejo Arias and his minor son, L.C.R.
“The Great Writ and release from detention are GRANTED pursuant to the attached Judgment. “Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency. And the rule of law be damned”
Judge Biery added a photo of Liam, wearing his bunny hat. He cited two Scripture verses: Matthew 19:14 and John 11:35.
The first is Jesus Christ rebuking disciples: “Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” The second verse is the shortest verse in the Bible, “And Jesus wept.”
Peter Dannenberg
Cabot
