Citizens are living in Fear
NYT Opinion column 'American Citizens Are Living in Fear'.
MS NOW
nytimes.com/2026/01/14/opinion/ice-citizens- …
To the Editor:
The last time I felt afraid of my own government was when I was 12 and watched news coverage of the Kent State shooting. I’ll never forget what it was like to listen to President Richard Nixon’s vitriol against those he deemed enemies of his view of America.
Nothing has been as chilling, though, as seeing footage of an ICE agent shooting and killing Renee Good in Minneapolis. The current president clearly has no intention of representing all Americans. He sees the world as a Manichaean universe where either you support him or you are an enemy target.
If my own government thinks I and others like me who don’t fall in line with the president are the enemy, how can I not be afraid?
Poor us.
Merri Rosenberg
Ardsley, N.Y.
To the Editor:
I am a Hispanic American and a United States citizen by birth who believes deeply in the foundational tenets of this nation. But for the first time in my 42 years, I live in fear.
Fear that I’ll be stopped because I look the way I look or because I was overheard speaking Spanish to my wife or son — both American citizens.
Fear that I looked at an agent the wrong way or that we won’t have our passports on us — because why would we?
Fear that I’ll say the wrong thing, and that even if my words are justified, I’ll be beaten and taken or, worse, my family will be.
Fear that my son will witness it and have to live with that memory. Fear of ultimately being disappeared.
What a wild thing to write.
I live in fear in my own country despite having worked my way into senior roles at Fortune 50 companies. Despite having paid my dues. Despite having taken nothing from anyone. Despite doing things the right way.
I live in fear, and there is little else I can do but write letters like this one because I have dwindling faith that my representatives in Congress have either the willingness or the ability to help.
Yet my family and I remain here for the promise this nation made to us, and we fight every day to ensure that promise is kept.
Please — fight harder for us. Show what door-to-door searches look like. Show what it means when humans are abducted, citizen and noncitizen alike. Chase down and name the people responsible. Hold them to account. Wave the flag before we no longer have one.