The St. Paul City Council has a message for President Donald Trump: using immigrant children to “weaponize a political debate” over immigration “violates our country’s highe…
The St. Paul City Council has a message for President Donald Trump: using immigrant children to “weaponize a political debate” over immigration “violates our country’s highest American values of humanity and compassion.”
In no uncertain terms, the city council on Wednesday voted to condemn the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” border policies, which have captured national attention and inflamed social consciences since news broke that Homeland Security officials had separated small children from their parents and held them in detention camp settings.
Dozens of activists, many of them Latinos and Native Americans organized by the Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center on East Seventh Street, marched to City Hall on Wednesday for the vote. Related Articles
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“Injustice to any immigrant is an injustice to all immigrants, and to our country of immigrants,” said council member Jane Prince, before reading aloud from the two-page resolution. “None of us believe that the imprisonment of families is an option.”
According to the resolution, Department of Homeland Security officials reported that between April 18 and May 31 alone, 1,995 children, some as young as 18 months, were taken from 1,950 immigrant adults being prosecuted for illegal entry.
“That’s bigger than Central High School — every student at Central High School,” said council member Chris Tolbert. “I didn’t think we could ever reach this low level.”
Reporters have toured a converted Walmart store in Brownsville, Texas, where 1,400 boys are held in increasingly crowded conditions, as well as a warehouse-like processing center in McAllen, Texas, where detainees spend days in wire-mesh cages and sleep on floor mats under thermal blankets.
“Everything in me, as an American, as a mother, as a Jew, rebels against this policy,” said council member Rebecca Noecker. “I hope that we will see families reunited immediately, and that we will never see anything close to this ever again.”
The images have struck a chord with Native American tribes, who recalled having children forcibly removed and placed into boarding schools as part of federal assimilation strategies from the late 1800s through the mid-1900s.
“It’s hard to put into words, the kind of feelings,” said Adrian Chavez, an East Side resident who arrived at City Hall wearing what he called war paint. “Who does that to children? I’m not an activist, but you’ve got to do something.”
Under widespread political pressure, Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order allowing for the detainment of parents and children together for indefinite periods. Before the vote, council member Samantha Henningson added an amendment that asked the Trump administration to reunite families as quickly as possible.
Several council members said despite the executive order, there was more work to do on the issue.
“The president… he has many times gone back on his word and changed his policies,” said council member Dai Thao, who urged the state’s congressional delegation to continue to monitor the situation.
The resolution was sponsored by six of seven council members, including president Amy Brendmoen. Dan Bostrom, who was not a co-sponsor, was absent for the vote.
After the council vote, marchers — many of them in indigenous clothing — posed outside the council chambers for pictures with Mayor Melvin Carter, who instead of “Cheese!” encouraged them to shout “Family!” for the camera.
