Suing ICE could stop Social Circle detention
Maryland recently obtained an injunction in U.S. District Court against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE had plans to build a large detention center there. What ICE did not do was file an environmental impact statement as required by the National Environmental Policy Act.
The court agreed with the attorney general of Maryland that ICE had not complied with federal law, and ICE was enjoined from continuing construction of its planned detention center in Maryland.
ICE plans to convert a warehouse in Social Circle and operate a large detention center there. City officials in Social Circle indicate they do not have the water and sewer capacity to accommodate a 4,000-bed detention center inside the city limits. City officials also indicate police and fire protection are inadequate to service such a large facility inside Social Circle.
City leaders in Social Circle should take a page out of Maryland’s playbook and sue ICE in U.S. District Court for noncompliance with NEPA. Under any objective criteria included in an environmental impact statement, the city of Social Circle would not be an appropriate place to locate a 10,000-bed ICE detention center.
STEVEN HARRELL, JEFFERSONVILLE
Politicians forget consequences of ‘forever wars’
My Uncle Luther was drafted out of high school and suffered terrible injuries, including losing one eye during the Battle of the Bulge. At his burial in the mid-1960s at Fort Polk, Louisiana, I saw hundreds of young soldiers drilling in preparation for Vietnam. I had failed my selective service physical (heart, not bone spurs), so little danger of my being drafted, but it was very sad knowing some of them would come home in a body bag.
I just heard again an old Kingston Trio song from the 1960s, “Where Have All The Flowers Gone?” lamenting the pointless death of so many young men in Vietnam. American dead eventually surpassed 58,000, with Vietnamese dead estimated at over 3 million.
One verse, “When will they ever learn?” It is most poignant for me. It seems our politicians take about 20 years to forget the last war, or to conclude, against all evidence, they are so much smarter and can ignore all history. We ignored all the danger from the Middle East until 9/11, then overreacted and attacked the wrong country. Then, they attempted regime change. What is the definition of insanity?
I remember thinking, as Vietnam started and again as the Iraq war started, that I hoped our leaders knew what they were doing. Not!
Now, having alienated almost all our Western allies and having no clear path to exit Iran, I fear we have ignited another “forever war.”
JERRY LITTLEFIELD, ROME
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