Readers Write: Hotels that house ICE, Republicans, voter data

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

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The Minneapolis City Council’s decision to delay liquor license renewals for two downtown hotels because they housed federal law-enforcement agents is a stunning example of government overreach (“Liquor licenses delayed over ICE presence,” Feb. 5).

Liquor licenses exist to regulate alcohol service, not to punish lawful businesses for who their guests are. By all accounts, these hotels are in full compliance with city ordinances. Even the city attorney confirmed there is no legal basis to deny the licenses. Delaying them anyway sends a clear message: Political pressure now outweighs the rule of law in Minneapolis.

Several council members rightly warned that this action invites litigation. They are correct. Selectively targeting businesses for hosting law-abiding federal agents while allowing hundreds of other licenses to proceed looks less like governance and more like discrimination.

Downtown hotels have already absorbed enormous losses from unrest and declining travel. Piling on with performative, legally questionable actions will only hurt workers, taxpayers and the city’s credibility.

Licensing should be grounded in facts and law, not ideology. Minneapolis deserves better judgment from its elected officials.

Many thanks to Edina Mayor James B. Hovland for his excellent commentary on the impact of Immigration and Customs Enforcement across the state of Minnesota (“How ICE has upended life in Minnesota,” Feb. 6). My primary wish is for leaders and media with integrity to take their analysis one step further. ICE is just the weapon. Can we delve into who is pulling the trigger? There are people who could stop this unlawful and unconstitutional military occupation of our state and many other communities across the country. They are called Republicans. Why aren’t they doing so?

It is no surprise that the cruel madman in the White House created a vicious terror force to try to bully his way to domination. What is a surprise is that more Republicans at all levels have abandoned the Constitution and the democratic government they swore to uphold. What is a surprise is that more journalists aren’t going to the true power brokers and asking them, “Why?”

America has, over the arc of history, fought back against authoritarian actors and state-level domination of Black and brown people. Now that authoritarian action is federal and focused on everyone. Americans are not buying the lies, and see with their own eyes that ICE is not about immigration. We are fighting back, but the hundreds of thousands of Americans demanding lawful respect for our rights as guaranteed in the Constitution cannot win if big businesses, billionaires, corporate media and Republicans collude against the people of the country. More of those influential actors, like former GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Madel, need to choose the right side of history and stand with the rest of us. Volunteers?

Pamela Twiss, Minneapolis

I keep reading quotes from politicians claiming that Americans want reasonable, moderate border enforcement. I’d like them to stop trying to speak for me. I have no desire to return to so-called reasonable, moderate border enforcement.

For my entire life, I have seen how border enforcement harms my neighbors: by separating families, tearing people from their homes, delivering them back into danger, detaining them in inhumane conditions. And now I’m seeing it up close.

It’s horrifying to watch, out in the open. The current grotesque display of blatant violence emerges from decades of that same violence committed out of the public eye. I can’t stomach it, no matter where it happens. And it doesn’t need to happen.

Our humanity is far more important than our national origin, our race or our citizenship. Even the most privileged among us can see — viral on social media, gunshot after gunshot — that our freedom cannot be separated from the freedom of our undocumented neighbors.

Borders are not inevitable. They do not enhance our safety or our quality of life. They are a violation of humans’ freedom of movement, and to any of us who aren’t politicians or billionaires, the cost of the border is a heavy price.

Gus Gustafson, Minneapolis

Such blatant disregard for state and federal laws by these Trumpian quislings is an act of ring-kissing for a president that increasingly sees himself as the only valid source of legal and moral authority at every level of American life. The actions of these Republican politicians must be soundly rejected by all Minnesotans who really do care about removing government corruption.

Like the patently false reason given by Trump for invading Venezuela and his phony excuse for the violent and murderous Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis, Trump’s political assaults against Minnesota and other blue states that did not vote for him must be understood for the illegal and immoral actions they are.

George K. Atkins, Minneapolis

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I don’t understand why the GOP congressional delegation is trying to get Minnesota’s voting records. They won their elections. Perhaps they didn’t win if there was a problem with illegal voting. But I guess if the Republican candidates for Congress win and the president of that party loses, then that proves somebody cheated? It probably is important to spend a lot of money attempting to straighten all of this out. We really need more lawyers dealing with inane court filings.

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In the chaos that has been life in Minnesota, specifically the Twin Cities, since Operation Metro Surge began, I have never been so proud to be a Minnesotan. As we all stand up for our rights and our lives and the rights and lives of everyone here, we see four of our elected representatives (Reps. Tom Emmer, Brad Finstad, Michelle Fischbach, Pete Stauber) co-sponsor a bill to bar Minnesota from receiving federal election assistance funds until our “private” voting records are turned over to the current administration. It’s one thing for those representatives to sell their souls for a nod from Trump, but to sell out your state? Who and what are they?

I’ve worked for years as an election judge, and I know how hard Minnesota works to support true, factual, safe and accurate elections. To question the integrity of their own state’s elections, the elections that put them in office, is astounding.

Again, I wonder, how do they look in the mirror, face their family and friends or dare to run for re-election? Shame on them.