Readers Write: Pollinator gardens, immigration enforcement, the shutdown, farmer bailout

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

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This is just to add a bit of specificity and FYI to the “nature in the city” commentary, for people looking to feed monarch butterflies (“Why monarch butterflies recently descended on downtown St. Paul,” Strib Voices, Oct. 5).

Blazing star is a species of Liatris, which is a genus of perennials native to the Midwest. There are multiple species with overlapping natural ranges, each a favored source of food of specific butterfly species. Many Liatris species have similar common names, variations of blazing star (prairie blazing star, dense blazing star, etc.) and are available locally.

Liatris ligulistylis is the species preferred by monarch butterflies. My gardens have had at least four different species of Liatris. If the general public is interested in feeding monarchs, L. ligulistylis is the species to plant. Gertens, and possibly others, carries it in its natives section with a special tag that says monarchs prefer it. My plants are covered in monarchs during the bloom period, mid-August through mid-September.

Plant more than one species, and you will also see tiger swallowtail butterflies, among others. Look this plant genus up and add it to your own garden.

Becky Huebner, Inver Grove Heights

Indeed. Purporting to have uncovered massive immigration fraud in a Twin Cities operation that involved Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services making more than 900 site visits in 10 days at the end of September, Edlow was long on outrage but short on results.

Although he had anecdotes about a couple of sham marriages between noncitizens and citizens to gain eligibility for citizenship, only four people were arrested during these operations (“Feds probe Twin Cities area for immigration fraud cases,” Oct. 1). Other cases were referred for administrative review. (Paperwork violations?)

He went on to insinuate fraud when they found “an individual filing to sponsor more than 100 aliens, an organization sponsoring hundreds.” Like what organizations? Lutheran Social Service? Catholic Charities? The Minnesota Council of Churches? The YMCA? Civic organizations like Optimists Clubs and Rotary? Yes, all have been involved in refugee sponsorships, helping refugees become successful Americans.

Like what individuals? Many of the people I most admire have given generously of their time and resources to sponsor Afghan translators, soldiers and allies who helped save American lives. They’ve sponsored Ukrainian women and children fleeing the war. They’ve sponsored refugees from around the world fleeing horrors we can only (thank God) imagine.

Edlow expressed indignation that the officers involved in this operation faced harassment, threats and “even had the police called on them.” He demanded that the public respect these agents as they do what they claim is their duty. And yet, time and time again, we’ve seen news coverage of these agents perpetrating violence and abuse from behind their bulletproof vests and their masks. If you want respect, be worthy of it. And yes, I will call the police to confirm the identity of someone showing up in my neighborhood who seems suspicious. And here I will invoke the names of Melissa and Mark Hortman and John and Yvette Hoffman. I will dial 911 so the officers of my community will confirm the identity of anyone representing themselves as legitimate law enforcement officers.

I am shocked.

Sheila Miller, Golden Valley

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The Trump administration is bent on punishing blue states and cities by illegally withholding congressionally approved funding for projects and research. But there’s a cost to the president’s petty vindictiveness that his advisers perhaps don’t dare tell him about. These states and cities are the bulk of the regional revenue sources for the U.S. Treasury, contributing more funds than they receive. If economic activity there stalls, the red states that receive more funds than they contribute will also suffer. It seems that the president either doesn’t understand this or doesn’t care.

Bob Worrall, Roseville

I am one of over 200,000 Minnesotans who don’t even have health insurance. If the enhanced premium tax credits for the Affordable Care Act expire on top of the rate increases cited in “‘Alarming’ hike for insurance premiums” from Oct. 1, any hope I have of affording health insurance will evaporate entirely.

I work 75 hours per week at two jobs — as an education coordinator at a child care center and as a PCA for a special-needs child. I think I make “good money” but when I actually do the numbers on my take-home pay, it comes out to not quite $17 an hour. It also comes out to enough to ensure I do not qualify for any assistance in paying for health insurance. So I remain uninsured because I cannot afford to be insured.

Health care, like the child care field I work in, is a public good. We all deserve to get the health care we need when we need it, just like families should be able to afford the child care they need. We all benefit from a system that works well. We need elected leaders to fight for us, instead of cut taxes for billionaires.

C.D. Long, St. Paul

In the article regarding President Donald Trump’s stated plan to bail out soybean farmers hurt by his tariff and trade wars (“Trump plans aid package for U.S. soybean farmers,” Oct. 6), Caleb Ragland, a Kentucky farmer and president of the American Soybean Association, stated, “It’s just unfortunate that we’re being used as a bargaining chip in this trade war that’s not of our own doing.” Excuse me? During the last Trump administration the president’s tariff and trade war with China cost soybean farmers plenty, to the point where they needed federal financial bailouts. Nevertheless, in the last presidential election American farmers again voted overwhelmingly for Trump, knowing full well of their experiences from his first administration, and the fact that if elected he promised to pursue a renewed tariff and trade war with China, as well as his promises to arrest and deport their labor pool. Sorry, farmers, this is of your own doing. It is hard to swallow financing a multibillion-dollar bailout for a group of people who keep shooting themselves in their own feet.

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I grew up in rural America and appreciate the problems caused by fluctuating grain prices. I also agree that a bailout is needed to help alleviate the damage caused by the Trump tariffs. But I wish our farmers would do a little soul-searching.

It seems that a majority of farmers are MAGA, taking pride in their “independence” while cheering on the Trump cuts to Medicaid subsidies and other programs that help the poor. Often they malign those welfare “leeches” while happily cashing those bailout checks.

It seems that “welfare” is always money that the government gives to the “other guy.”