Readers Write: ICE, fallout from Operation Metro Surge, immigration

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

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County governments may not often make headlines, but they are where the impacts of policy decisions are felt first. Counties are the bridge between federal, state and local systems, and when instability rises, residents turn to county services.

Hennepin County serves more than 1.3 million Minnesotans and delivers essential services, including health care access, housing and rental assistance, food support, roads and bridges, libraries and care for children, seniors and people with disabilities. Demand for these services is growing.

The deployment of roughly 3,000 immigration agents to Minnesota in December, initially described as a response to fraud, has instead created fear, disruption and instability with real consequences.

Eviction notices are going out. Food shelves and rental-assistance providers are seeing increased demand as federal funding declines. Businesses across greater Minnesota and the Twin Cities report worker shortages driven by fear, not a lack of jobs, disrupting operations, reducing hours and slowing local economic activity.

The human toll is equally real. Children are missing school. Neighbors, parents and business owners, including legal residents, are afraid to leave their homes because of the color of their skin or the language they speak. The deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti weigh heavily on communities and have deepened fear. None of these outcomes have improved public safety.

Minnesotans are resilient, but resilience cannot offset prolonged fear and trauma. Counties do not have unlimited resources to absorb the damage caused by this operation. Public safety depends on trust and a predictable legal system. This operation has undermined both.

It is time for Congress and the president to act and bring this operation to an end.

Heather Edelson, Edina

The writer is Hennepin County commissioner for District 6.

I am appalled by the invasion of Minnesota by thousands of armed, masked, ill-trained federal officers in what appears to be a purely punitive political act by our current president and his administration.

That is why I am appalled by the deafening silence of the Minnesota Republicans, particularly the congressional delegation. In fact, one of our congressmen is in a leadership position where he could perhaps exercise influence on the current administration. Finally, I am appalled by the feeble response of the large corporations in our business community as evidence by the equivocal letter that they recently issued. It appears to me that our large-business citizens have other interests that prevent them from supporting our community in Minnesota that is in so much pain inflicted by the federal government, including the killing of our fellow citizens.

I pray that this invasion, and the attendant chaos and fear, quickly comes to an end by the intercession of cooler heads.

Joe Alexander, Minneapolis

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Almost daily we read articles about the devastation being caused by the immigration enforcement surge. Last Friday we went to our favorite restaurant in south Minneapolis we had not visited since Thanksgiving. The difference was enormous. The menu had 50% fewer items, but the waiter said the number had increased slightly. The cause was the shortage of kitchen staff. Wait staff were almost running to deliver menu items. They all seemed visibly stressed. When we asked they talked about their stress and what they were doing to help other employees who were afraid to leave their homes. The restaurant had an added tip line to contribute to the other employees’ welfare. In a restaurant which previously had staff of color, the employees last week were all white.

Darwin Hendel, St. Paul

The lead headline on the front page of the Feb. 10 issue of the Star Tribune reads, “ICE indirectly imperils schools.” I would suggest that a more appropriate headline would have said that ICE directly imperils schools. Right now, administrators, teachers and parents are on high alert to protect the children trying to go to school. Right now, schools are scrambling to provide education for the families afraid to go to school. Right now, educators are having to try to explain to their students — immigrant or not — why these are such confusing, fearful times. Right now, schools are experiencing greatly reduced attendance, therefore reducing state payments.

In every possible way, ICE is directly imperiling education in Minnesota, particularly in already hurting metropolitan districts. This is a direct, not indirect, affect on our public schools.

Mary Lynn Leff, Buffalo

In his article in the Minnesota Star Tribune, William Cory Labovitch compares the situation of the immigrants now being rounded up in Minneapolis for return to their country of origin with the European Jews who fled pogroms and later the Holocaust (“The correlation between the Holocaust and immigration enforcement today,” Strib Voices, Feb. 11). He says we should ask ourselves this question: “Did every Jew who tried to escape do so legally?” He is correct in suggesting the answer is a resounding “no.”

The lesson this teaches is to adopt immigration laws that facilitate legal entry by immigrants seeking a safe harbor in which to raise their families. That is the comparison to be made between the Jews of Europe and today’s immigrants.

Ronald Haskvitz, Minnetonka

To those who say the protesters should get out of the way and let Immigration and Customs Enforcement do their job: After reviewing Department of Homeland Security documents, CBS News determined that less than 14% of those arrested by ICE over the last year had violent criminal records. Most of those “worst of the worst” were already detained in criminal proceedings. Have you asked yourselves: Who are the other 86% that ICE seized off the streets?

To Democrats in Congress, during their negotiation about continued funding for DHS: 2,000 agents still in Minnesota continue their racist profiling to arrest/abduct/intimidate/brutalize our neighbors, many of whom are following proper immigration procedure or are even U.S. citizens. We beg you, use your lever of power to end the madness. No more stopgap funding. DHS operations should halt entirely until ICE activity is reset to something resembling immigration enforcement.

To Republican politicians everywhere, many of whom initially expressed shock at the killing of two nonviolent protesters but, as usual, quickly fell in line when they observed which way the Trumpian winds were blowing: Grow a spine. Open your eyes and stand up for an actual principle, or resign and get out of the way for someone who can.