Readers Write: Voting, straw purchases, ICE, fraud

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

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Why is it when I apply for Real ID, and I have to provide a Social Security number, a passport or birth certificate, and two proofs of residency, it’s called a “requirement,” but when I have to provide proof of citizenship to vote it’s called a “restriction”?

Doug deGrood, Edina

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Why are Minnesota’s Republican representatives in Congress supporting the Trump administration’s attempt to obtain Minnesota’s voting records? Do they really believe there has been rampant fraud in Minnesota elections? Of course not. Anyone with half a brain knows that President Donald Trump’s claims of voter fraud are baseless. Every court case heard has made it clear that the administration’s claims are completely false.

Why, then, allow the federal government access to the voting records? These Republicans know that if unnecessary restrictions are placed on who can vote, fewer Democrats will cast ballots. Long before Trump, Republicans recognized that making voting harder reduces turnout among poorer people, students and others in vulnerable situations — groups that tend to vote Democratic. So if our Minnesota Republicans go along with Trump’s election insecurity narrative and falsehoods, fewer Democratic votes will naturally follow.

Phillip Williams, Mahtomedi

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Even if you believe the mendacious Trump administration that Operation Metro Surge is withdrawing, hang on to your whistles. We’re going to need them when those same thugs menace our polling places.

Jim Moore, Plymouth

The state of Minnesota has laws to penalize people who buy guns for people who cannot legally buy them (straw purchases). The penalties and consequences imposed in two recent high-profile cases do not hold these straw buyers accountable for the results of their crimes.

On Feb. 10, 2026, William Burton was sentenced to only 33 months for making 43 straw purchases between November 2019 and August 2020. So far, 17 of these firearms have been associated with criminal activity, including the killings of two young girls in 2021: 9-year-old Trinity Ottoson-Smith and 6-year-old Aniya Allen.

The 2026 legislative session will be filled with posturing in an election year. Republicans will focus on fraud and vilifying the Somali population. Democrats will focus on regulating Immigration and Customs Enforcement. I do not expect a productive session.

An issue they could address is putting teeth in the convictions of straw buyers. Michigan successfully prosecuted the parents of a school shooter, Illinois successfully prosecuted the father of the Fourth of July parade shooter, and Georgia is prosecuting the father of another school shooter. Similarly, the Minnesota Legislature should hold these straw buyers accountable with real consequences by charging them in the crimes committed using the weapons they are putting on our streets.

Michael Bennett, Eden Prairie

I have the distinct privilege of meeting regularly with a group of county colleagues from around the state. When we get together, we tackle tough issues, most recently sharing with each other how the federal Operation Metro Surge has affected our communities.

While not all in the room had stories that related to the surge, most did. Stories of the impact, and how it affected their communities, were shared around the room.

Clearly, Hennepin County was the epicenter of the focus of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. However, many, many of the 87 counties in Minnesota have been affected. Ramsey County, the suburban ring counties and counties from across the state. Especially counties that have significant immigrant communities within their boundaries. Nobles, Stearns, Olmsted, Freeborn and, yes, my county of Kandiyohi have felt the impact.

I shared the widely disseminated knowledge of the actions of ICE in Kandiyohi County: a high school student pulled from her car and then later turned out on the sidewalk in front of the Whipple Building with no ride back to Willmar, a family that refused to come to the door when a law enforcement officer attempted a welfare check after one of the parents was detained at the nearby school bus stop, 4,000 students absent in one week alone from the Willmar School District ...

Few if any of these communities will be spared the economic and social impact.

And lest readers think the folks in the room having this difficult conversation are bleeding hearts, they were not.

I try to counsel those who have endured hardships and setbacks with the view that someday we will look back and say, “As tough as that was, some good has come of it.”

Sometimes that look back is far down the road. However, sometimes it happens sooner. The public perception of trust of our public safety community in Minnesota has justifiably been raised. Put in an extremely difficult position, they have demonstrated over and over that residents in our communities can be confident that these men and women have our backs.

As we restore our communities, we will show the world that Minnesota will endure. We will support the businesses impacted by ICE. We will rebuild the trust of our migrant communities. And, we will no longer take our democracy for granted.

From the lyrics of a 1970s-era song by the Moody Blues: “From the ashes we can build another day!”

Roger Imdieke, New London, Minn.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services apparently hasn’t learned from the Epstein file debacle that redacting information only makes this worse (“Social services fraud report heavily redacted,” Feb. 19).

Gov. Tim Walz must see to it that these files are released.