St. Cloud Residents Demand City Protection from ICE at Packed Mayor’s Forum

(KNSI) — St. Cloud residents packed the mayor’s public forum on Monday night to demand the city do more to protect the population from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Dozens of federal agents from ICE and the Department of Homeland Security have been operating for weeks in the area, and according to residents, making arrests and disrupting immigrant-owned and minority-owned businesses. Many in the crowd accused the federal officers of racial profiling.

Kima Booker is from St. Cloud and has six children. She showed up to speak up for her kids, who she says have been unfairly targeted by ICE. “My 16-year-old in St. Cloud walked out of McDonald’s, and a bunch of ICE [agents] surrounded her, telling her to give them her ID. She kept going to her car. Why did ICE pull over my 16-year-old daughter? Because she has tan to her skin, and she looks like she’s Hispanic.”

Booker says the same thing happened to another 20-year-old daughter when she walked out of her apartment in Mankato.

Doug Dedecker also spoke at the meeting and told KNSI News he sees what ICE is doing in Minnesota and wants the city to be ready. “We need a forward-leaning government in the city that will tell ICE and our border control, in no uncertain terms, that if they commit crimes, the City of St. Cloud will investigate and, if necessary, prosecute ICE agents.”

Ron Branstner, who describes himself as an expert on immigration and refugee resettlement, said he recently came back from Washington, D.C., where he was helping work on the issue. He began to blame past presidential administrations for the problem and claimed ICE’s work has nothing to do with race or racial profiling.

His comments were drowned out and shouted down by many members in the crowd.

In the end, many residents made it clear they feel unsafe and want the city to do more to protect them. Mayor Jake Anderson agreed that ICE’s tactics were too heavy-handed and stated the agency doesn’t coordinate with local police on arrests or actions.

The mayor said he would take several audience suggestions under consideration. These included looking at an eviction moratorium to protect residents from losing housing due to ICE enforcement, similar to protections offered during the pandemic. Another suggestion was having a police officer present, if available, to monitor ICE operations and help ensure people’s safety when someone calls for help during an enforcement action.

Anderson also encouraged anyone who has had a bad experience with ICE to file a complaint with the local field office, although he admitted he’s not sure how much good that will do.

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