Readers Write: ICE detaining children, voter ID, politics and the Olympics, Boundary Waters mining

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

•••

The official website of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement states that “ICE does not detain unaccompanied children — except in rare instances." The Feb. 24 Strib article “ICE took Minnesota teen, hid him from family” seems to belie that statement. By what right did these agents detain this young person and take him first to a hotel and then to a Christian “residency program”?

Let us spare a moment to consider the moral flexibility required for a purportedly Christian organization to contract with the government to detain minors as well as hide them from their parents.

But that’s beside the point. This is not a war zone. This child was not apprehended in the middle of criminal activity. He was not the victim of abuse such that he required protection. By what possible justification did these agents take this child and hide him from his parents? ICE has gone so far off the rails that decency requires us to stand up and say, “No. Not in our name, and not with our money.” I refuse to accept a world in which the alleged good guys are allowed to kidnap children. Enough.

Eileen McCully, Rochester

•••

Regarding the arrests, analysis from the Cato Institute shows that 73% of those detained had no criminal record. Only 5% had convictions for violent crimes. Furthermore, reports from MPR News and CBS Minnesota clarify that the 3,000 children identified were not “missing”; most were part of an administrative “paperwork gap” while already living safely with family sponsors.

Emmer and all of our elected officials should focus their efforts on what’s good for Minnesota. We are at a serious crossroads. Bloomberg’s Matthew Winkler recently noted that national small business bankruptcies have reached record levels. This trend is mirrored here; the Minneapolis Federal Reserve’s February survey found that 64% of regional agricultural lenders report falling farm incomes, while small businesses struggle with labor shortages and tariff-driven uncertainty.

America will rise above our challenges as long as those we elect prioritize the truth. Blaming a previous administration or holding up progress for political points does nothing to improve the reality on Main Street. Now is the time for focused, outcome-based efforts that serve all of us. Republicans and Democrats must do better.

Each of us can help by holding our elected officials accountable. It’s easily done via their websites.

Paul Donovan, Minneapolis

The answer is that traveling on an airline is not a right. It has many requirements, the most basic of which is possessing a purchased ticket.

Voting is a right conferred to U.S. citizens. Anything that constrains that right, such as a poll tax, is a restriction. Whether or not a particular restriction is lawful is determine by the courts.

William Tajibnapis, Minneapolis

•••

If you get turned away at a bar or an airport because you couldn’t be bothered to renew your ID or order a copy of your birth certificate, no one is harmed but you. And if you want to enjoy the activities involved, you’ll make the effort. But voting is not an enjoyable activity; it’s an inconvenient chore. And if you get turned away at the polls then someone else is harmed: the politicians and political party you otherwise would have voted for.

In 1987, I earned a master’s degree in sports journalism, and my thesis measured how women’s sports coverage had changed since the inception of Title IX in 1972. My theory was that the entry of girls and women into sports in equal numbers to boys and men would earn them more coverage. That theory was disproved. Further, among comments in my summary, I suggested that it was time for a change in some language used by the media. For instance, “man-to-man defense” was still being used referring to women, and it just didn’t cut it anymore.

Fast forward to last week as I watched the U.S. women’s Olympic team win gold in hockey, a sport that didn’t exist for women when I was young. I beamed with pride as I watched my niece from Edina play hockey for Ohio State against Bemidji State. And I watched Hill-Murray School, where my daughter and son-in-law teach, win the 2A girls hockey state championship.

I recognize that women have made strides since I wrote my master’s thesis. Yet, I also recognize we have more progress to make. Why is it that I hear radio and television announcers — both men and women, at all levels of play — still referring to girls and women as men? “They had an extra man on the ice.” “After that penalty, they’ll be down a man.” And so on.

It is jarring and rankles me every time I hear it, and I grieve the fact that this continues unchecked after so many years of women’s participation. How little progress we have made in some ways. Think of the little girls watching. How do they make sense of it? While it may seem insignificant, consider if this occurred during a men’s game — that is, the announcer referring to “too many women on the ice.” Unheard of, and I imagine the rebuke would be loud. Details and words matter. And girls and women deserve better.

Jane Rodriguez, Mazeppa, Minn.

It was disheartening to witness the recent postgame celebrations after the Olympic men’s hockey game, which felt strikingly out of step with the spirit of the occasion (“Is politics ruining sports? Partisanship simmers after Olympic gold for men’s hockey,” StarTribune.com, Feb. 24). Rather than fostering a sense of shared pride, the behavior displayed was exclusionary and regressive, leaning into sexist tropes that have no place in modern athletics.

One cannot credibly argue that sports serve as a “great equalizer” while actively platforming divisive political entities and marginalizing women in the process. By prioritizing the presence of a polarizing individual in such a high-visibility environment, those in charge demonstrated a failure of leadership. Instead of capturing a rare moment of national harmony, they chose a path of unnecessary division.

What should have been an unblemished celebration of an incredible achievement has, unfortunately, been marred by these avoidable and poorly judged associations.

Brian Stevenson, Roseville

Lately my sister and I, when discussing our current national and local situation, ask each other, “What would Miles Lord do?” We know he would work at keeping Immigration and Customs Enforcement in check. But he would also help with the following issue: In 1974, federal Judge Miles Lord ruled against reserve mining for dumping millions of taconite tailings into Lake Superior. Also in 1974, he granted an injunction to halt lumbering in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. In 1980 he ruled against motorized vehicles in the Boundary Waters.

Virginia Lord and Priscilla Lord, Edina