What is a bigger “Problem” to solve RIGHT NOW, than the ICE Murders and ICE’s lawless terrorizing of citizens and immigrants?
Jan 26, 2026
Dear Tom:
I don’t know how else to get through to you, but to appeal to you directly. I lived in your Congressional District for many years, and still have many good friends and family members who live in your Congressional District right now, and voted for you. They were happy to work hard for you to defeat convicted felon George Santos, but many are having second thoughts about your failure to fight the authoritarian excesses of the Trump Administration, which is what they elected you to do.
Some 30 years ago, when you were Mayor of Glen Cove, Tom Germano of Cornell University’s ILR School and Labor Studies Program and I conducted several days of training for your staff, your local unions and you. I have often praised your active participation in that training as a sign of a public official who was open to learning, changing and improving, and to be part of something bigger than yourself. Having worked with New York’s Governor Mario M. Cuomo for eight years, that was very important to me.
But enough history. Let’s talk about right now, and how you are perfectly positioned to change the terrible course this country has taken into autocracy, suppression and the State-sponsored murder and kidnapping of innocents, if you have the will and moral strength to do it. I believe you do.
You proudly proclaim your membership in the House of Representatives “Problem Solvers Caucus,” a group of approximately 50 Democrats and Republicans who are supposed to look past partisan labels to achieve consensus. Fine. I’m not going to get into a debate with you over the cheap political cover such a “caucus” provides to some who have taken reprehensible, anti-democratic and inhumane positions and written them into budgets and laws. That’s a discussion for another day. I want to deal with what is, right now.
As a leader of the “Problem Solvers Caucus,” what bigger “problem” exists in this country right now than preserving our Democracy and the Rule of Law? As a lawyer, and son of a legendary judge, this should be a no-brainer for you. What bigger “problem” is there to solve right now than the uncontrolled, Secret Police actions of ICE, the recent ICE executions of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, and the kidnapping of young immigrant children, like Liam Ramos from the driveway of his home? Why haven’t you gone on Fox News to talk about that? Convince me, and your constituents of a bigger problem that exists at this very moment that is in need of a more immediate solution?
Your position of leadership in the “Problem Solvers Caucus” brings with it another crucial obligation. Your access to other key Members of Congress, is not just for ego gratification, or resume building, but to get good things done. One immediate thing you can get done today is to buttonhole your fellow “Problem Solvers Caucus” member Republican Andrew Garbarino, who represents the neighboring Second Congressional District on Long Island, and Chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security. Garbarino’s committee controls all of the funding for ICE, and has Oversight responsibility for ICE’s actions. He has failed miserably to do either.
I know that you voted against the “Big Ugly Bill” which gave huge tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, destroyed investments in cancer research and AIDS care, Medicare and Medicaid, and gave Homeland Security and ICE multiple billions of dollars of taxpayers dollars, without any mechanism for holding them accountable. Bravo, for that vote, Tom, especially coming when your colleague Garbarino, the Homeland Security Chair, literally fell asleep during that vote, demonstrating a profound lack of care for the people of his 2nd C.D—where I grew up—and for American democracy.
Before you voted last week to allow ICE’s gestapo-like tactics to continue unabated without demanding any freeze on their funding or placing any ironclad restrictions upon their illegal, inhumane activities—a terrible, thoughtless vote which, along with the votes of six other of your Democratic colleagues, enabled continued, unrestricted ICE funding to pass the House—you repeatedly failed to demand accountability from the GOP’s Garbarino—another fellow “problem solver”—to conduct sharp oversight over both the excessive spending and the use of deadly force by Homeland Security and, specifically by Trump’s ICE secret-police. Why, Tom? Wasn’t that a serious enough “problem” to be solved, that goes to the very core of our democracy?
What continues to amaze me, Tom, is how an intelligent person of such great faith as yourself—who has met with three Popes over your lifetime—Pope Saint John Paul II, Pope Francis, and Pope Leo XIV—has failed to absorb any of their powerful teachings about the treatment of “the stranger” and of “migrants?” Didn’t you listen to what they said to you? Didn’t your personal audiences with those three transformational Popes make an impact upon you, and point the way to putting your faith into pro-humane actions? Didn’t Pope Francis’s comments of it being “a grave sin” to mistreat migrants have an impact upon you, a son of an immigrant? If if did, why don’t you do something about it, especially since you have the power and position to do so right now?
Which brings me to another important area where you can have a profound influence, and end ICE’s reign of terror and murder, by helping to elect a Democratic House to hold the Trump administration accountable for its lawlessness and inhumanity. You can use your influence with Hakeem Jeffries—who permitted you to cast that vote in favor of ICE funding last week—with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and with the Democratic National Committee to prioritize Patrick Halpin’s Congressional Campaign against Garbarino in the Second CD.
Is the DNC and DCCC so politically tone-deaf that they cannot recognize the political earthquake it would be to defeat Garbarino— the GOP House Chair of the Homeland Security Committee—who has been asleep at the wheel of holding ICE accountable in its funding and its illegal actions? As a fellow former Long Island County Executive, you know how closely Halpin worked with the Suffolk County Police force, who were required to undergo 6 months of rigorous law enforcement training, without receiving a $50,000 signing bonus as ICE’s unvetted, unqualified applicants are receiving? C’mon Tom, how can you be blind to this? You are a CPA as well as a lawyer; how could you ignore to such a blatant failure on Garbarino’s part to reign in the billions of dollars of unaccounted for spending of Homeland Security, including the lavish airplanes of Kristy Noem, and the building of an ICE secret police force larger—and far less trained—than local police forces around the country, like those in Suffolk and Nassau Counties?
Pat Halpin has spoken eloquently about these urgent matters, and was a powerful partner with Governor Mario M. Cuomo on strengthening local police departments and fighting the crack/cocaine epidemic of the 1980’s.
You know Pat Halpin; you know his strong history of public service, from his time in the New York State Assembly, to his courage in combatting the crack-epidemic as County Suffolk County Executive, to his steady leadership of the Suffolk County Water Authority. How could you not galvanize the Democratic National Committee and the DCCC behind Patrick’s candidacy for Congress, in the face of Garbarino’s clear cut failure to exercise any oversight over Homeland Security or ICE as Chair of the House Homeland Security Committee? How can you be so silent? Just because Garbarino is a member of the “problem solvers caucus” with you? Don’t you see that Garbarino, and other Trump/ICE enablers, are a huge part of the “problem?”
Use your power, Tom; use your position of influence with Jeffries, with the DCCC and with the DNC; use your pulpit on Fox News, on CNN and across all media platforms to condemn ICE’s unrestrained spending, illegal tactics and murderous brutality; and use the great moral lessons you’ve learned directly from three Popes: treat migrants, and our own citizens with humanity, decency and respect for their lives.
Yours in creating a better country and world,
Steve Villano