I am a first-generation American, born to a man whose family came to this country as refugees from Adolf Hitler’s army. My father, whose “crime” was being half-Jewish, fled Vienna in 1938 at the age of 17. His mother stayed behind to secure the release of her Jewish husband from Dachau.

The current brutal deportations of immigrants who have come here for refuge from violence and oppression but without legal permission must be traumatizing [“Nassau: Over 1,400 people jailed under ICE agreement,” News, July 10].

Hearing the language of Hitler being used to dehumanize people, many of whom have had protected status and are living exemplary lives, is horrifying.

Nazi ideology involved extreme nationalism, a rejection of democracy and socialism, and the establishment of a totalitarian regime, while purging society of Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, people with disabilities, and anyone deemed undesirable.

Rounding people up to fill arbitrary quotas, placing them in detention camps and making them disappear is what America apparently has become. Our Gestapo is called ICE, people who wear masks. Are they ashamed?

I generally love Matt Davies’ political cartoons, but his immigration drawing about Superman [Opinion, July 14] missed the mark.

Sure, Superman is an alien from the planet Krypton, but he is also an American hero who fought the Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrest foreign exchange students and migrant farmworkers among thousands of others. To portray an ICE officer as stronger than the Man of Steel seems sacrilegious and politically incorrect.

To show Superman in handcuffs, Davies should have colored the cuffs green to indicate they were made of kryptonite, the radioactive mineral that makes Superman powerless.

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