Letters-to-the-Editor & Commentary

Mike Lawler Is Wrong: This Is Not About Immigration Policy

Published 4 weeks ago4w ago • Bookmarks: 2 • Comments: 1

February 6, 2026

By Cait Conley–

Mike Lawler is wrong about Minneapolis. This is not about immigration policy. This is about the unchecked abuse of power by the federal government. I spent four years at West Point and served 16 years in the U.S. Army, starting as a military police officer. I fought for this country in combat zones around the world to keep Americans safe from terror groups and foreign adversaries. I know what real law enforcement looks like. What I’ve seen on American streets over the past three weeks is violence I never expected to witness at home. No American should be okay with this.

We witnessed a mother shot in the face and a VA nurse shot multiple times in the back. Americans were killed on American streets by American federal agents. These citizens are the very people the federal government is supposed to serve and protect. No apology has been offered, and no commitment has been made to ensure this never happens again. Instead, blame has been placed on the victims.

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These events are just the latest examples of a pattern of behavior that is escalating and broadening.

Within the first few days of the Trump Administration, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth directed an investigation into the “conduct” of former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley and revoked his protective service detail. General Milley served as Chairman during Trump’s first term and has been a vocal critic of Trump since retiring from the military. The revocation of his security detail came amidst public reporting of ongoing threats to his personal safety by Iranian threat actors in retribution for military operations conducted during the first Trump administration. Despite these very real threats to a patriot’s life for actions taken serving this country, to include implementing Trump’s military strategy, this administration left him unprotected.

Within the first few weeks of the administration, the President issued executive orders directing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate former Republican political appointees from Trump’s first administration, like former CISA Director Chris Krebs, who refused to support Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. In the following months, we saw DOJ-directed FBI investigations into others perceived as political opposition, like New York Attorney General Letitia James and Former FBI Director James Comey (cases that grand juries have thrown out).

Over the last year, the Trump Administration has used the executive branch to intimidate public and private sector actors into obedience, to investigate political opposition as punishment, and now to stoke fear in Americans who protest peacefully.

The events in Minneapolis should be met with clarity and accountability, not reframed as an abstract policy debate. Yet my Congressman, Mike Lawler, attempted to explain these events in a recent NY Times Op-Ed as the result of “failed immigration policy.”

I support law enforcement and effective border security that treats people with dignity. What I don’t support is the abuse of federal power and an absence of accountability. When sanctioned government action takes the lives of the very people it is responsible for serving and protecting, we need clear calls for consequences, not more political theorizing. Congressman Lawler’s framing fails to meet this moment and risks normalizing abuses of power that we should never accept. This is not a Democratic or Republican issue. It’s an American one.

Accountability has to begin at the top. Secretary Noem must step down or be impeached. The federal agents involved in the killing of these Americans must be fully and independently investigated, and any leaders who oversaw or enabled these abuses of power should be placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigations.

Just as importantly, we must begin the work of rebuilding trust. That requires rigorous congressional oversight, transparency, and clear consequences when federal power is misused. Trust can only be restored when people see, through action, that accountability is real and the safety of the American people comes first.

Leadership is measured in moments like this, by whether those in power confront tragedy with honesty, clarity, and accountability. When American lives are lost at the hands of the Government, silence, deflection, abstraction, and blame are not signs of leadership.

We can, and must, do better.

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