Minnesota citizens and local officials outside Minneapolis say they don’t want the crime and chaos taking place in Minneapolis and that they do support the law enforcement work of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
“We don’t want to be like Minneapolis,” St. Cloud City Council Member Scott Brodeen declared last week in comments supporting ICE, The Minnesota Star-Tribune reported Sunday:
“I don’t want bad stuff to happen here in St. Cloud that could be avoided.”
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“Just let [ICE] do their jobs and we’ll remain safe as a community.”
“Leaders and residents from southwest Minnesota up to the Iron Range have shared similar thoughts about letting ICE complete its job,” The Star-Tribune reports, noting that the opinions expressed by Minnesotans “in small-town bars, cafes and other gathering spots across the state” reject those voiced by anti-ICE residents in metropolitan areas of the state.
Indeed, the mayor of Cold Spring, Dave Heinen, says he’d welcome ICE raids of a local poultry processing plant, if they targeting violent criminals, because he wants his friends and relatives who work there to be safe.
Likewise, St. Louis County Commissioner Keith Nelson says it’s important to enforce the law and maintain the nation’s borders. What’s more, he says, the people in his community “trust the system” and – unlike Minnesotans in anti-ICE areas of the state – comply with law enforcement officers. “I get the sense that, in other communities, that’s not how it’s working right now and that’s disturbing,” the commissioner observed.
“When an officer of any kind, or an ICE agent, walks up to you and tells you to do something, you’re supposed to listen,” a business owner in Sturgeon Lake agreed in comments to the Star-Tribune, characterizing Minnesota’s anti-ICE protesters as “agitators” who are interfering with legitimate law enforcement efforts.
