Letters to the Editor: Feb. 6, 2026

Vote them out

Under President Trump, the United States is inching closer and closer to becoming a tyranny, a totalitarian state where a lawless government’s power is exercised by one man, according to his arbitrary will.

In a tyranny, the principle of action is fear. In newspaper accounts of ICE sweeping through our communities, the word “fear” or one of its cognates appears time and time again.

In order to save our democracy, it is urgent that we vote the Republicans out of office in the midterm elections so the House Judiciary Committee can vote articles of impeachment against the great tyrant as well as the petty tyrants under him. They include, but are not limited to, Secretary of Defense (oops, War) Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.

Robert Mason

McMinnville

Memorial desecrators

Some residents of Newberg seem to believe the public square belongs only to them.

The public memorial listing the names of individuals murdered by ICE/CBP, including Keith Porter, Renee Good and Alex Pretti. It was granted permission to remain up through Feb. 9.

It was removed by anonymous individuals, then replaced by the organizers, then removed again. During the second removal, the perpetrators left a list of victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants, including Laken Riley.

While multiple studies have shown that both documented and undocumented immigrants commit violent crimes at lower rates than U.S.-born citizens, statements by the president and his staff repeat racist lies about the criminal tendencies of immigrants to justify the violence of ICE/CBP toward citizens as well as non-citizens.

Those who erased the names and faces of Porter, Good and Pretti to highlight victims of crimes by undocumented immigrants suggest the most important thing about Riley and others is the legal status of those who violated them. The memorial desecrators further suggest the killings of Porter, Good, Pretti and others by ICE/CBP were permissible.

By anonymously taking down the memorial, these desecrators implied the threat by a Minnesota ICE agent who told a person filming him, “You raise your voice, I erase your voice.” While they may view themselves as patriots, this attitude is distinctly un-American.

The public square belongs to all of us. It is a space for constitutionally protected speech and debate, not the theft of those rights through domination and intimidation.

Adrianne Santina

McMinnville

Replace them all

Thank you to the people of Minneapolis for manifesting the best of humanity while Donald’s ICE thugs display the worst.

In the words of Bruce Springsteen, “We’ll remember the names of those who died on the streets of Minneapolis.” They are Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti.

But there are countless other names we have forgotten or never knew. Government violence has been perpetrated against some members of our communities, particularly indigenous people and people of color, for the entire history of our country.

Republicans, you own this spate of violence. Your party is in power,. And ou allowed it to be taken over by racists and Christian nationalists.

Any elected Republicans who had not already been condemning the ICE violence prior to the murders of Renee and Alex, whether national, state or local, should be voted out of office. They should be replaced by people who value human decency over their own political position.

As many have said, it’s not about left vs right. It’s about right vs wrong.

And let’s not forget that the Department of Justice continues to be in violation of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, as well as a Congressional subpoena issued last summer.

Why are Donald’s sycophants still covering up for child rapists? The evidence against him must be damning.

Alisa Owen

McMinnville

Fundamental rights

Our nation was created through activism and dissent. Howe we seem to find ourselves with a president who wants to make these both illegal and punishable.

The American people are not going to just sit in their homes and let this happen. Along with freedom of speech, activism and dissent are the building blocks of a healthy democracy.

Stuart Gunness

Sheridan

The time is now

The people of Minnesota called for a general strike on Friday, Jan 30, as a way to unify the entire U.S. in denouncing the violence of ICE.

General strikes are powerful because they allow people to collectively garner power over their governments. They say, “It’s no longer business as usual. This is not ok. We are fighting back.”

Here in McMinnville, a handful of businesses closed in solidarity for the general strike, but the majority exercised individual forms of protest, such as providing gathering spaces or raising money for local organizations.

While individual forms of resistance are powerful day to day, there are also times that call for collective resistance. Forms of collective resistance can include strikes, public protests, marches, and boycotts, as well as many other ways yet to be discovered.

I feel that our community as a whole could benefit from more collective and unified ways of resistance as a way to convey a cohesive message to both our local and federal governments.

No one can predict the future, but I’m afraid the horrors of ICE are going to get worse in Oregon, as they did in Minnesota.

If this happens in McMinnville, and our innocent friends and neighbors are murdered in our streets, what will we do? Will we strike then, and want the whole country to strike with us? Will we have another way to respond? How will we unite?

I encourage all of us to consider how our individual privilege and need for comfort might keep us engaged in our individual forms of resistance as opposed to collective forms of resistance. Our local government and police force have told us that they will not keep us safe from ICE.

It’s up to us. The time is now.

Jennifer Fisher

Alchemist’s Jam

McMinnville

Be on guard

Filming ICE on personal phones is dangerous. It can cause a great deal of stress.

Personal phones have been smashed and batted out of people’s hands. And those filming are reportedly being identified electronically and added to a databank somewhere, though the committee’s still out on the legality of that B.S. terrorist-branding tactic.

Suggestion: Buy a throwaway burner phone and film with it. Then send the recording immediately to someone who won’t be labeled as a terrorist by the ridiculous-looking goon squad we call ICE.

ICE agents look like cartoon characters, don’t they? If they really believed in what they were doing, they wouldn’t be afraid to show their faces.

Bwaak bwaak bwaak bwaak bwaak bwaaaaaaak …

Sheila Hunter

McMinnville

Standing tall

At Wednesday’s weekly protest outside the library, I was photographed by a man in a black polo shirt that featured an embroidered gold badge suggesting association with a law enforcement agency. I watched him single me out.

I held a sign he clearly took issue with. Not because it was false or somehow illegal, it appeared, but because he took offense to my statement of expression.

I expressed visually that I think our president looks like a sweet potato and is behaving like a certain historical figure. And yes, I included a profanity.

I ask this letter be printed as public record. This is where we are now in this country.

I will NOT be intimidated.

Lisa McCracken

McMinnville

Correction

In a Jan. 30 letter, writer Valerie Blaha’s intent was to complain about living in a “country” where grift and pay-to-play rig the process, not a “county” as an inadvertent transposition made it appear. The News-Register regrets introduction of the error.