I want to thank Victoria Hugo-Vidal for speaking out against the Trump deportation policies in her March 23 column. She is spot-on.

These deportations are brutal, vindictive, intimidating and, very possibly, illegal. The message is clear: whether someone is a Lebanese doctor with a valid visa working to save American lives or a Venezuelan with a tattoo who may or may not be a member of a gang, they are not entitled to any rights in this country.

What is remarkable in that same country is that Victoria Hugo-Vidal can speak her mind so directly and clearly in a public forum. She writes, “The people in charge of our government and the Americans cheering them on are cruel, hard, little bitter people.” That sentence struck a chord with me because that is who they are. Trump’s immigration advisers, like Stephen Miller and Tom Homan, want to dehumanize and humiliate immigrants out of what seem to be deep feelings of hatred. They deserve to be called out openly and forcefully.

What I fear is that after Trump and his officials have deported every immigrant they can find, they will start in on editorialists or protesters who take them to task for their policies. One has to be blind not to see that freedom of speech — the very freedom that allows Victoria Hugo-Vidal and your newspaper to condemn government cruelty — is increasingly in danger.

Either the press is free or there is no press.

Charles Brown
Owls Head