Has it come to this? Foreseeable panic spreads when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers enter neighborhoods near schools. City and school officials in Oakland and Berkeley California have their hands full calming the frayed nerves of children in panic.

When will ICE learn to temper its power with common sense? America has many problems: poverty, lack of health care, an economy toppling into recession, a crumbling infrastructure, an over-stretched military, food and gas inflation, pollution, to name but a few. Must our government add to the pain by scaring our children?

ICE should chill for now. Let the next President and the forthcoming Congress have a chance to lead the charge for immigration reform, rather than unleash an overzealous police agency to spread panic in the land.