from the series Something I Said…
By DWIGHT HOBBES
ICE, the curse that keeps on giving. Operation Metro Surge was ostensibly called off, though as of June, hundreds of agents stayed, keeping a lower profile than committing outright assault and cold blooded murder. The damage is still done. On top of lousing up immigrant lives, actually dragging people away from work and worse, ICE cost Minnesotans somewhere around 5,700 hospitality jobs and 4,400 construction jobs from December of last year to this February alone. This is verified by federal data. North Star Policy Action researcher Aaron Rosenthal told The Minnesota Reformer early estimates for the same period were $46 million and $106 million in lost wages across Minneapolis and St. Paul.
This is not just about dollars and doesn’t make the first bit of common sense. Nor does Minnesota GOP lawmakers refusing state aid to compensate Minneapolis’ revenue losses. They cited DFL pro-immigrant policies for Operation Metro Surge being there in the first place. With the Minnesota House of Representatives reporting East Lake Street businesses along what’s dubbed “Little Mexico” experiencing 80% to 100% losses, this passing the buck sounds suspiciously like color coding and amounts to blaming victims for Democrats being socially progressive. Never mind that ICE had no right to wreak havoc on people who took America’s land of opportunity claim to fame at face value, not seeing any “whites only” sign.
A willfully ignorant mindset deliberately blinds the GOP to reality. And further exposes what everyone already knew – if you’re not in their constituency, moneyed enough to blithely go your merry way, completely unconcerned, your humanity is something about which they couldn’t be bothered to give a damn. You, your family, how you’re going to make a living, pay mortgage or rent, eat and otherwise hold breath and body together simply don’t count.
The economic catastrophe ensued over a long, drawn out siege akin to Gestapo storm trooper attacks in German cities, not needing to bother with warrants or trials to arrest, detain, or deport individuals.
Minnesota Republicans fell in lockstep with Donald Trump’s totalitarian regime. They’re scared to do anything else. Note: for all he’s bent out of shape over Mexicans and Somalis, in May, he raised the ceiling on overseas refugees from 7,000 to 1750. Every one a white South African. Plain and simple, this is Trump’s race war with which Minnesota’s GOP is right on board and sticking South Minneapolis with the tab.
