St. Cloud City Council punts on resolution supporting law enforcement, passes one welcoming all
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The St. Cloud City Council passed a resolution reaffirming that the city is a “just and welcoming community” to all residents before an overflow crowd Monday night.
But a council member who proposed a second resolution supporting law enforcement asked to postpone discussion on it until March.
The debate comes amid a surge of federal immigration enforcement action in St. Cloud that many residents say is targeting people of color, creating fear, harming businesses and creating absenteeism in schools. Tensions remain high days after a second person observing ICE agents was shot and killed in Minneapolis.
Council member Hudda Ibrahim, a member of St. Cloud’s Somali American community, requested a vote on the welcoming resolution.
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It declares that St. Cloud welcomes “all residents without regard to age, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, religion or country of origin,” and is committed to fostering “a community in which all people have the right to pursue life, liberty and happiness.”
The resolution also acknowledges the positive contributions that all residents make to the city.
It’s similar to a resolution passed back in 2017, after a former St. Cloud city council member unsuccessfully tried to pass a moratorium on new refugee resettlement in the city.
The council passed Ibrahim’s resolution, but only after a lengthy debate. Some council members said the city should clarify whether it really wants to be welcoming to all residents.
"The problem is welcoming all is that would mean we welcome hardened criminals. We welcome murderers, rapists, child molesters,” council member Mark Johnson said. “Obviously, that is not the intent of this document. Because at that point, our residents could no longer feel safe."
Some members of the audience, many of whom held signs declaring support for immigrants or anger toward ICE, laughed during Johnson’s remarks.
Johnson proposed amending the resolution to say St. Cloud welcomes all law abiding residents who are here legally. That amendment failed to pass, after other council members questioned what “law abiding” means.
“I have been known to drive over the speed limit,” council member Karen Larson said. “How do we determine who is and is not law abiding? That's a job for law enforcement.”
Other attempts to amend the resolution also failed, and the original version eventually passed on a 6 to 1 vote, with council member Scott Brodeen voting no.
Earlier, Brodeen had proposed another resolution voting to affirm the council's support for law enforcement and the rule of law.
But Monday night, Brodeen asked to postpone a vote on that resolution until March, saying it’s not the right time for the discussion. He said many people misunderstood his intent.
“The point was never to raise the temperature … never to cause tension or division,” Brodeen said. “It was actually the opposite – try to keep all of our people safe.”
Brodeen said he wrote the resolution before “stuff started really getting crazy.” On Jan. 24, 37-year-old ICE observer Alex Pretti was fatally shot at the hands of federal border patrol agents near his home in Minneapolis.
The crowd of about 200 people packed into the St. Cloud City Hall council chambers appeared largely opposed to Brodeen’s resolution, and supportive of Ibrahim’s. The council didn't take public testimony about the resolutions, but a few people did speak at an open forum at the end.
St. Cloud resident Farhiya Iman, a member of the Somali American community, said the community supports law enforcement but not ICE’s current actions, which she said are negatively impacting the community and economy.
"There has been increased racial profiling.” Iman said. “Families are afraid to leave their homes. People are afraid to go to work. Children are afraid that their parents won't be there when they come home, including my own three children."
Many people also attended an open forum before the council meeting with Mayor Jake Anderson. Some told stories about residents being racially profiled and questioned or even detained although they are U.S. citizens.
“I can't tell you how many people have been swept away – not only ours, but our Somali and Hmong people,” said Patty Keeling, an organizer with Fe y Justicia, a nonprofit organization that serves the Latino community. “It's horrible.”
Many asked the city to take a stronger stand against ICE action in the St. Cloud community.
“The thing is, we cannot be nice when they are brutal,” said St. Cloud resident Hassan Yussuf, who said he now carries his passport with him.
“The only reason that they are here is because of our color,” Yussuf said. “A white person may be able to pass, but they are stopping people because they have a different accent, like myself, they have a different color, like myself. So there is no way I can hide.”
Anderson said he shares many of their concerns, and urged people to file formal complaints about the encounters with ICE.
But the mayor also expressed frustration that there's not much he can do to relay those concerns to federal officials. And the city police department doesn’t have enough officers to respond to every report of ICE activity, he said.
Anderson also said if St. Cloud does push back too hard, it might risk being targeted for more ICE enforcement.
“Many of the cities that have spoken more forthright about it and against it have seen even more agents and more federal presence in their communities,” he said. “And quite frankly, it’s the opposite result of what you’re hoping for.”
