I write this with deep outrage and heartfelt disappointment as both the Suffolk Community College Foundation chair and a lifelong public servant who devoted over half a century to the people of Suffolk County.

The forced detention of Sara Lopez Garcia — a young woman of exceptional character, academic excellence, and community commitment — is not only an affront to human decency but a direct insult to the values we hold dear [“Facing deportation, LI honors student seeks freedom,” News, July 11].

Lopez Garcia believed she was here legally, her professors believed it and her fiance believed it. How could this happen in our America?

This is not about partisan politics. This is about justice and the soul of our community. I’m a proud veteran who served in support of our American principles, but I’m prouder to stand up for what’s right.

What law is being served when a young woman who has done everything right is yanked from her home, her school, and her future without warning? This young woman posed no threat. She was building her dream — right here in Suffolk County — and we failed her.

To Lopez Garcia, her professors, and every student watching this unfold in fear: We hear you, and we won’t stand idly by while dignity and justice are trampled upon. In Suffolk County, we take care of our own.

Besides being sent with her mother to a detention center in Louisiana awaiting deportation to Colombia, it is even more heartbreaking that Sara Lopez Garcia was engaged to be married on Aug. 7 and her 17-year-old brother was left behind.

When I voted for President Donald Trump, I had no idea that mass deportations would be targeting people like Lopez Garcia. I feel I have been betrayed. I am ashamed to say that I voted for this president and other Republican Party candidates.

Why is there no distinction made between law-abiding, innocent, hardworking migrants and violent, criminal gang members?

Sara Lopez Garcia seems to embody the type of person we should want as our neighbor — hardworking, with a passion for assisting vulnerable people and a desire to build a family and home on Long Island.

But because we have a rogue army of masked, unidentifiable Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who apparently don’t have a shred of respect for due process and the rule of law, Lopez Garcia sits in a detention facility more than a thousand miles away from the only place she knows as home.

It is shameful.

Even more shameful is the silence from most of our elected officials who often have much to say about anything and everything, but not this. Perhaps they should skip the next photo op at Suffolk Community College out of respect for the faculty who not only know how wrong Lopez Garcia’s detention is, but perhaps more important, are not afraid to speak out about it.

Beautiful, productive, intelligent caring families and individuals of all ages are being ripped apart without any hearing and knowledge of their current life.

I’ve been a part-time faculty member at Suffolk County Community College for almost 20 years. I am 81 and still working because of the joy of helping students of all nationalities reach their dreams and goals.

When I see Sara Lopez Garcia’s life torn apart in such a cruel and inhuman way, I become sick and angry.

Instead of being punished, she should be made an example of what our country stands for and how much she can contribute to making it as great as it has always been. She is not a criminal. She is a victim of injustice and a lack of humanity.

Newsday’s July 10 cover headline read “Our community is outraged,” and it should be outraged when someone who is an asset to community, who does not have a criminal record, and is not an active member of a gang is taken by ICE simply because she is an immigrant. I hope that our community indeed will express its outrage at the ballot box.

Thursday’s Newsday was a mélange of the latest outrageous moves by Donald Trump: detaining for deportation an honors student before her upcoming nuptials, warning he’ll have to take over New York City if the Democratic administration doesn’t behave [“Trump warns he’ll ‘run’ NYC. Can he?,” News, July 9], and punitive 50% tariffs on Brazil over its “witch hunt” treatment of former president and Trump buddy Jair Bolsonaro [“Trump singles out Brazil with 50% tariffs over ex-leader,” News].

Where does it end? Is there no overstepping, illegal, rash or ill-considered action that this man and his enablers will not attempt?

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