Readers Write: ICE arrests, coal mining, boosting birthrates, guardians ad litem, Pope Francis

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

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Let me see if I have this right: There is a man in jail in Marshall, Minn. The official reason for his arrest is that he overstayed his student visa, which had been revoked four days earlier. Somewhat understandable, except he wasn’t notified of the change in his status. Our State Department approved a “silent revocation,” which is typically reserved for clear public safety threats. Why is this husband and father of an 8-month-old child a threat? He was, after all, working in an area hospital and was in Minnesota to complete studies for his MBA. Apparently, a 2022 misdemeanor charge for spray-painting graffiti on a bridge and some delivery trucks is sufficient cause to consider him a threat to public safety (“When ICE came, he simply asked ‘Why?’” April 19).

So, it’s OK to 1) secretly take away someone’s legal status and then 2) arrest this same person for ... what now? Oh, yes. Being here illegally.

Perfect sense? Or eerily similar to an authoritarian state?

Roberta Becker, Minneapolis

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In a letter to the editor Sunday about bias in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia news coverage, the writer said, “Abrego Garcia was in the country illegally ... [T]he administration had every right to deport him overall. Unbiased reporting would make that clear.” If this writer is so concerned about legal technicalities, perhaps he should have more correctly said, “The administration had every right to legally deport him.” The fact that he wasn’t legally deported is the point of this story, which has been accurately reported by the Star Tribune.

Here’s another example. A student was recently arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for having overstayed his student visa (“When ICE came, he simply asked, ‘Why?’”). Should the Star Tribune point out that, technically, overstaying a visa makes the person deportable, or should they report, as they did, that this person’s visa was deceptively revoked four days before he was arrested by ICE for having overstayed his visa? If the letter writer is so concerned with the letter of the law, perhaps he should be complaining about the lawlessness of the Trump administration.

Andrew Kramer, Marine on St. Croix

On April 8 at the White House, President Donald Trump said, “We’re bringing back an industry that was abandoned. We’re going to put the miners back to work.” Referring to the miners who surrounded him in his Oval Office photo op, Trump added, “You could give them a penthouse on Fifth Avenue and a different kind of a job and they’d be unhappy. They want to mine coal; that’s what they love to do.”

Clearly, the president has no idea what a coal miner’s job is like. My father grew up in a coal mining town in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Mountains, where my grandfather worked as a coal miner. As a Ukrainian immigrant who didn’t speak English, coal mining was one of the few jobs that was open to him. After working in the coal mines for over two decades, he contracted coal worker’s pneumoconiosis (CWP), better known as black lung disease. The disease is caused by inhaling coal dust over a long period. The inhaled dust settles in the lungs, causing inflammation and scarring, eventually impairing breathing.

My grandfather died of the disease in the mid-1930s. All five of his sons chose occupations other than coal mining. My father did work in the mines for a very short period in his late teens, but he soon left coal country for better prospects elsewhere and never returned to the life of a coal miner.

I’m sure if my grandfather had been offered “a penthouse on Fifth Avenue and a different kind of job,” he would have quickly taken the offer rather than go to an early grave in Pennsylvania’s coal country. Today’s coal miners are no different. In a New York minute, they’d swap their house and job in a coal company town and move to that posh Fifth Avenue penthouse. Would Trump be open to swapping places with one of them?

M.L. Kluznik, Mendota Heights

The Trump administration is working on ways to get women to have more babies (“White House weighs how to bump up U.S. birthrate,” April 22) at the very same time as it is cutting every single service to help our kids grow up healthy, be educated and enter the workforce prepared. This includes school funding, special education funding, climate protections, Medicaid, child-care grants, after-school and summer program grants and Obamacare provisions. You want us to have babies and then you yank out every single support we might have to raise those babies.

Laura Fingerson, Minneapolis

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I thought the Trump crowd was anti-DEI! So what’s with the idea of reserving 30% of Fulbright scholarships for people who are married or have children? Or awarding $5,000 bonuses only to women who have babies? How is that not a DEI program? Those certainly aren’t merit-based suggestions.

Fred Morris, Minneapolis

“State seeks volunteers to advocate for abused kids” (April 20): What a difference over 40 years makes (or not). When the Hennepin County Juvenile Court volunteer guardian ad litem (GAL) program began, the idea of using volunteers was innovative, progressive and cost-effective. It was one of the first in the nation and took many, many years to grow a base of around 250 volunteers that was a unique blend of well-intentioned community members. Since the state took over supervision and funding of all GAL programs, that number has fallen to 12.

“Diminished” is not a strong enough description. Last year the GAL Board nearly voted to eliminate the volunteer model completely, yet now they are in phoenix mode — rising from the ashes of a fire of their own making. Often the original ideas are simply the best. Volunteers sought once again — what a novel idea. Full circle, indeed.

Susan Meisenbach, Elk River

It is heartbreaking that Pope Francis had a fatal stroke the day after Easter. He will have a special place in the next life (if there is one). I wonder if he saw President Donald Trump’s Easter post, the one where he attacked citizens of our country (“Radical Left Lunatics”). I hope the people’s pope didn’t see that nasty, un-Christian message. That horrible message caused me to gasp in disbelief and then write this submission. All Christians who voted for this abnormal person should call for his impeachment. That would be a good way to repent from their vote.

I am so sad for our country and the world ... the pope’s death and a crude, cruel message from the U.S. president. God help us.

Meri Hauge, New Brighton

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With the passing of a moral giant come words of praise for how he was and what he advocated for. It would be well to consider a more fitting tribute to him than words: action and leadership.

The death of Pope Francis brings great sadness to so many of us, Catholic or not. His was a voice that gave us hope and wisdom. He was a marvelous role model to each of us.

As for our leaders, a more fitting tribute to Francis would be to act on what he advocated. He urged us to take actions to combat poverty, fight climate change and welcome immigrants to our shores with love and not hate. How great it would be if Minnesota’s congressional delegation could unite behind those causes so emphatically celebrated by Francis?

Words are nice but brave actions would be a life-enhancing tribute to a great and humble man. Love and courage drove him. Can our leaders truly emulate him?

Todd Otis, Minneapolis