Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes a mix of guest commentaries online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.
•••
For the past month, the invasion of 3,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers has presented great challenges to our people, businesses and reputation as a great place to live. Through it all, Minneapolis citizens stood tall. Let’s examine the lessons we can learn from this crisis.
1) “Minnesota nice” works in a crisis.
Minneapolitans generously supported their fellow citizens and have been willing to take risks in doing so. The estimated 50,000 people who joined the protest in downtown Minneapolis on Jan. 23, amid temperatures of minus 21 degrees, attest to that. So do the thousands who came to the streets with whistles to warn people and with cameras to film ICE actions. From hundreds of videos circulating online, the world saw that these are not “radical terrorists,” as some federal officials described them, but ordinary citizens trying to help, support and protect their impacted neighbors with food, shelter and funds.
2) Federal actions like this do great harm to businesses and their owners.
The stated purpose of the federal action was to detain and arrest illegal immigrants. It is surprising that our city was chosen since the number of immigrants who entered illegally in Minnesota pales in comparison with Florida, Texas and California, yet the size and intensity of the ICE effort led to great harm for businesses across the city. An estimated 80% of small businesses and restaurants had to close their doors because their employees did not dare to come to work. Some may never reopen.
For Minnesota’s large companies, whose more than 60 CEOs signed a letter urging de-escalation of the conflict, the consequences will be felt for many years. Employees who believed their workplaces were safe and secure may now feel threatened. Productivity was down sharply, and the crisis no doubt hampered innovation. Long term, companies that recruit people from outside Minnesota will find it more difficult to persuade them to move here.
3) Pitting federal officials against state and local leaders makes the situation worse.
There should never have been conflict between federal and state officials in Minnesota, as we depend on our elected leaders to work together to protect us. Had they agreed in advance on the operation’s goals and the respective roles of federal, state and local law enforcement, most of the conflict, the protests and the tragic murders of two citizens could have been avoided.
4) Actual videos of events can overcome distorted accounts.
Thanks to multiple video accounts, people saw with their own eyes that neither Renee Good nor Alex Pretti was trying to do any harm when they were murdered by ICE agents. Shortly after Good’s murder, she was labeled a “domestic terrorist” by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. Multiple videos showed Good had turned her wheels away and was leaving the scene peacefully when she was shot three times, having told the ICE agent, “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.”
