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CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Gov. Ige taking oath with First Lady, Dawn. Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald gave the oath of office. Daughter, Amy, is in the middle.
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Gov. David Ige’s remarks during his swearing-in ceremony on Dec. 3 regarding use of tear gas at our border with Mexico amply illustrate his ignorance of national issues and his desire to be critical of the Trump administration, facts be damned (“Ige stresses ‘moving forward together’ in second term,” Star-Advertiser, Dec. 4).
He said, “The decisions and policies coming from our nation’s capital today threaten the very core of our values here in the islands. When did it become okay to tear-gas men and women and children for wanting a better future for themselves?”
According to Homeland Security data, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has used tear gas since 2010, and deployed it 26 times in fiscal 2012 and 27 times in 2013. The use dropped after that, but was still deployed three times in 2016, during President Barack Obama’s final full year in office.
Ige may decry the use of tear gas at the border, but he needs to get his facts right and understand its use is not unique to the current administration.
Robert Lottie
Kailua
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