ICE agents are cowards, says former Sacramento cop | Opinion
ICE agents are cowards
“Trump threatens to invoke Insurrection Act in Minnesota. What is it?” (sacbee.com, Jan. 15)
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are cowards.
I was a Sacramento cop for 30 years. I did everything from walking a beat to investigations and serving as a watch commander. I wore my uniform — which displayed my department badge, its number and my name tag — with pride. Never once did I wear a mask or feel a need to camouflage my identity.
I walked a beat in the cold and dark, in all types of weather conditions, long before there were walkie-talkie radios and when the only way we were known to be alive was using a call box to telephone police dispatch every hour.
I am not alone: Before me are tens of thousands of other cops who did the very same thing. I’d venture not a single one of them ever wore a mask.
Robert N Austin
Sacramento
Rules do not apply
“ICE Out For Good protest at California Capitol Saturday,” (sacbee.com, Jan. 11)
If I was previously unsure whether I was living in a police state, the events following the murder of Renee Good settled it. Without even the pretense of an investigation, the Trump administration made it clear that it can kill anyone they wish with impunity.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE has become President Donald Trump’s Gestapo, and it is clear that constitutional rules do not apply.
Meade Fischer
Lincoln
Health care options remain
“California should promote competition in health insurance,” (sacbee.com, Dec. 31)
Recent media reports incorrectly suggest that Californians enrolled in both Medicare and Medi-Cal — known as dually eligible individuals — have fewer Medicare options. In fact, these members still have multiple choices: Original Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medi-Medi Plans and PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly).
These options remain fully available.
Under the California Department of Health Care Services’ CalAIM initiative, the focus is on improving care coordination for people with complex needs. CalAIM is not about limiting choices; it’s about making them work better together.
Lauren Gavin Solis
Sacramento
Support for Prop. 19 repeal
“Third attempt to repeal Prop. 19’s tax burden on inherited property aims for 2026 California ballot,” (sacbee.com, Dec. 4)
Proposition 19 did far more than adjust tax policy. It fundamentally altered the future of California families — often at the most vulnerable moment of their lives.
By turning the death of a parent into a taxable event, Prop. 19 punishes children for inheriting their family home. It dismantled long-standing, voter-approved, constitutionally protected property tax safeguards — yet voters were never clearly told what this would mean in practice.
Homes meant to remain in families for generations are sold under financial duress and lost forever. After the sale, many heirs still cannot afford to remain in the very communities in which they were raised.
On behalf of homeowners across this state, we ask for your leadership now — before more families are forced to lose not only their homes, but their roots.
Jim Lawrence
Board Chair, Fixin San Mateo County
Bird flu threat
“Avian flu confirmed in two geese at Cameron Park Lake, officials say,” (sacbee.com, Nov. 1, 2025)
The growing threat of bird flu is not just a biosecurity failure; it is a moral and systemic one. We learned during COVID that zoonotic spillover is real, deadly and fueled by how we confine and exploit animals. Yet we continue to crowd chickens, cows and other animals into filthy, stressful factory-farm conditions.
This is not an unavoidable act of nature. It is a choice.
People complain about egg prices, but the real cost of factory farming is paid in human lives, animal suffering, environmental destruction and the risk of another pandemic. Industrial animal agriculture makes us sicker, pollutes our planet and pushes viruses to mutate and jump species.
Judie Mancuso
Laguna Beach
The crisis isn’t wolves
“Is it a wolf or a coyote? What to do if you come across a wild gray wolf,” (sacbee.com, Jan. 14)
The “threat” wolves pose to public safety is statistically non-existent. In 100 years, there have been fewer than 30 documented attacks by wild wolves on humans across North America. Compare that to dogs, which bite nearly 4.5 million people and kill roughly 30 to 50 Americans every single year.
The real crisis isn’t the wolves, it’s our refusal to fund solutions. When we starve coexistence programs of resources, we manufacture conflict. We don’t need lethal management if we pay for the range riders, fladry and guardian dogs that actually work.
Jackie Zupsic
Los Angeles