Readers Write: Conditions at Whipple, U response to Alex Pretti, ICE in MN, Target

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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On Jan. 31, this paper published an article about conditions in the Whipple Federal Building titled “Detained in a place of ‘no humanity.’” And recently, MPR interviewed U.S. Rep. Kelly Morrison about her visit. Morrison had to give the government seven days’ notice, and when she was allowed entrance, she was appalled at what she saw. If you haven’t read or heard these accounts, please take the opportunity to do so. Hundreds of people are crowded into a space never intended for overnight accommodation: There are no beds, no blankets (and having been in that building, I know it is kept very cold), no arrangements for three meals a day, no medical care and overflowing toilets. Many of these people are wrested from their cars or homes without their medications and refused lifesaving medication while detained.

This is the same building where immigrants come for their hearings. Judges who rule on their cases work just down the hall from where this inhumane detention is happening. It’s unfathomable that these people are unaware of the conditions that surround them. I charge each of them to look themselves in the eye and ask, “Is this justice?” If they are not embarrassed, I am embarrassed for them.

So, I challenge these judges to stand together — as people sworn to pursue justice — and call for humane treatment of the individuals they sit in judgment of every day. It is the right thing to do.

Sandy Wolfe Wood, Stillwater

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations should be shut down until DHS has responded to the nearly 100 Minnesota court orders that it has ignored, until it can properly account for all the people it has already detained and until humane treatment of all detainees has been verified by an independent, nonpartisan human rights organization.

Lisa Wersal, Vadnais Heights

In response to faculty and student concerns about the University of Minnesota’s failure to directly condemn the killing of Alex Pretti — and its decision to use U police to remove a faculty member invited to perform at the event — a university spokesperson said the memorial was intended to be “nonpolitical,” according to a Feb. 5 Star Tribune article (“Faculty, students push University of Minnesota to denounce ICE and killing of alumnus Alex Pretti”). This statement illustrates the absurdity of the position U leadership has chosen to adopt. The memorial would not exist but for the deeply political fact that Pretti was killed. Moreover, by removing U violin professor Stephanie Arado for expressing a position Pretti himself expressed, and by refusing to honor Pretti’s family’s request to denounce the lies being told about him, the U is taking a political position after all — just not one it is owning up to.

Kate Derickson, Minneapolis

The writer is a professor of geography at the U.

These stories are not abstract to me. I heard them directly from my husband’s extended family. His grandparents lost their home and their grocery store in Washington state. Other family members lost prosperous farms, equipment and land in California. One aunt described her anger at her father, who continued to pay off a bank loan with cash he had brought to the camp, because it was his honor. Yet interned men chose to serve in the military for the country that had stripped them of their rights.

While the parallel is not perfect, our immigrant populations serve a sound and just purpose, seeking the right to work in a peaceful environment in a country they love. A democracy is only as strong as our courage to defend one another in the face of fear. I could not be prouder of my fellow Minnesotans’ actions to protect each other in a display of humanity for our democracy.

Adele Della Torre, Minneapolis

Imagine this scenario: You or a loved one are being violently assaulted, beaten or robbed at gunpoint. You beg them to stop. The perpetrator’s reply? “Well, maybe, but you have to first work with me on this.” Sounds crazy, right? Yet this is what we Minnesotans are being told by President Donald Trump, border czar Tom Homan and, astoundingly, Rep. Tom Emmer, one of our representatives in Washington! Who exactly is he representing here? And why must we participate in our own assault?

We are also greeted with the lie that we are somehow preventing them from arresting dangerous criminals. Well, we have eyes. We don’t believe the lies.

Several recent letters have questioned why Target has not done more to support the anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest in Minnesota. Folks, what should they do? Inform employees that if ICE thugs invade their store, they should line up and pelt the agents with stuffed animals?

Target is a business. It and other large corporations can do very little. In many ways it is not their job any more than putting a “Vote for Peterson” sign outside a business during an election.

If you want to do something, the congressperson from Minnesota’s Sixth District is Tom Emmer. He is the second-highest ranking Republican in the House. Write him! Call his office twice a week!

Tom Leary, Mendota Heights

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Just so you know: Target didn’t put my product in its stores when I was a hardware rep. It didn’t put my terminal trucks in its distribution centers when I was a terminal-truck rep. Target may not have been good for my career, but it is good for Minnesota. Shop Target.