Packed St. Cloud City Council meeting hears dueling resolutions on welcoming immigrants, enforcing the law

Sign up for the Minnesota Star Tribune’s St. Cloud Today newsletter, with up-to-date news from central Minnesota each weekday.

ST. CLOUD – More than 200 residents packed St. Cloud City Council chambers Jan. 26 to hear members debate two dueling immigration resolutions reflective of the political divide in the state.

One proposed resolution declared the city welcoming for all, and the other proclaimed support for law enforcement, including the federal agents searching for undocumented residents in the city.

Council Member Hudda Ibrahim, a Somali American, drafted the resolution seeking to reaffirm the city’s “identity as a place that is welcoming, inclusive and safe for everyone who calls St. Cloud home.”

It referenced the city’s 2005 community policing agreement and a 2017 resolution for a “just and welcoming community” that was passed after one council member proposed a controversial moratorium on refugee resettlement.

The crowd was primed to support Ibrahim’s motion, with some holding signs that read, “Pro-community, anti-ICE” or the Bible verse, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Many in the audience also attended a public forum with St. Cloud Mayor Jake Anderson preceding the meeting to voice concerns about ICE actions in the city.

The conversation came two weeks after a turbulent clash between residents and federal agents outside a Somali mall in St. Cloud where agents deployed a chemical irritant and one agent chased a bystander with a baton. St. Cloud police and a few elected officials, including Ibrahim, used their bodies as shields to help temper the crowd before agents left the scene.

After Ibrahim first proposed her resolution two weeks ago, Council Member Scott Brodeen also proposed his resolution “affirming support for law enforcement and the rule of law.” He said he’s heard from many constituents “expressing appreciation for ICE’s presence” and said he doesn’t believe federal agents’ targets are “pillars in the community and are the nice next-door neighbors we’ve heard about.”

It’s been a tumultuous few weeks in central Minnesota. Dozens of videos have been posted online showing residents being detained on city streets. Businesses are locking their doors to keep agents out, and some have closed because customers are wary to shop and the dip in profits isn’t sustainable. A network of volunteers has sprung up to deliver food and essentials to neighbors afraid to leave their homes.

St. Cloud resident Theresa Meis told Anderson she goes to a bus stop on the city’s south side every day to make sure kids and parents from about 14 nearby residential buildings get to school and back home safely. Just that morning, she said, federal agents showed up at the bus stop.

On Friday, St. Cloud State University President Greg Tomso said two international students, both studying on student visas, were detained by federal officials. One was held overnight and then released; the other was transferred to an out-of-state holding facility, he said.

“I can’t tell you how many people have been swept away,” said Patty Keeling, a member of the nonprofit Fe y Justicia, or Faith and Justice, a group that is working to connect residents with legal resources relating to immigration.

He did, however, sign a letter on Monday along with about 70 other community and business leaders — including former Mayor Dave Kleis, St. Cloud school district Superintendent Laurie Putnam and presidents of the three area colleges — that said “peaceful dialogue, freedom of expression and equal protection under the Constitution are essential” and that they “reject violence and dehumanization in all forms [and] commit to being voices for peace, understanding and shared responsibility.”

During the meeting, Council Member Mark Johnson wanted to add language to Ibrahim’s resolution stating that the city is a welcoming community “to all law-abiding residents who are here legally.”

“The problem with welcoming all is that would mean we welcome hardened criminals,” he said. “Obviously that is not the intent of this document — because at that point, our residents can no longer feel safe.”

Council Member Karen Larson opposed the amendment, saying the language was too ambiguous.

“With regard to the difficulty in defining ‘law-abiding,’ and the fact that I oppose adding that language, I have two confessions to make: I sometimes jaywalk ... and I have been known to drive over the speed limit,” she said, garnering laughs from the crowd.

The amendment failed and the resolution passed in its original form on a 6-1 vote.

When it came time to discuss Brodeen’s resolution, he made a motion to postpone the topic until March. He said when he first proposed the resolution two weeks ago, he didn’t intend for it to conflict with Ibrahim’s welcoming resolution.

“That wasn’t the intent at all. You can have a welcoming community and uphold the law,” he said. “The point was never to raise the temperature [or] cause tension or division. It was actually the opposite — to try to keep all our people safe."