The Washington County Board on Tuesday voted to have staff draft a letter to federal officials regarding rumors that the city of Woodbury is being considered for one of 23 Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers across the country.

The agency reportedly is planning to develop detention centers to house more than 80,000 immigrants and county officials want to get their opposition to a Woodbury center on the record.

“Let’s be clear that we’re opposing it,” said Vice Chair Bethany Cox. “Let’s be clear that we want open and honest communication just to give us an answer: ‘How do we respond to constituents? What’s the story there?’ And then, yes, if this is moving forward, there’s a public process that the city and the county have, and we expect transparency for people to follow through with it.”

Dozens of constituents have contacted county board members to express their concerns about a possible ICE detention center in the county, officials said. Two residents spoke about the issue during public comments at the board meeting on Tuesday.

One of them, Woodbury resident Paul Toveson, said the suburb is known “to be a city for families and made of all cultures.”

“Woodbury welcomes everyone,” Toveson said. “What would happen if a prison — a detention center or some other term to lock people up — came to Woodbury? Would we be known as a welcoming city for families to enjoy shopping here, enjoy the parks and relax in their home without fear? Or would we be known as a city who built a facility near two schools, a large church and several facilities for families?

“Would people want to live in Woodbury where perhaps a large fence is put up, protests are heard and making the Minneapolis and St. Paul papers for all the wrong reasons?”

Warehouses to detention centers?

The Washington Post reported last month that the Trump administration is developing a plan to “overhaul the United States’ immigrant detention system.” The plan would involve renovating industrial warehouses dotted around the country to serve as ICE detention centers, the Post reported, citing a draft solicitation for contractors that it reviewed.

The Post said the system would be made up of seven 5,000- to 10,000-bed warehouses and 16 smaller facilities. Two of the larger warehouses would be in Texas and five more in Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri and Virginia.

Woodbury was listed as a location of one of the 16 smaller warehouses, with 500-1,500 beds, in a graphic that accompanied the article.

City officials in Woodbury have not been notified of any plans for an ICE detention center, said Commissioner Fran Miron. He said city officials contacted the owner of a property on Hudson Road mentioned as a possible location, and the property owners said they had not been contacted either.

“I think that’s a good sign from our perspective,” he said. “Typically we wouldn’t respond to these types of things, but they’ve gained some prominence because the media at high levels are reporting on these issues, but we’ve not received anything from the federal government or from ICE indicating that they have a desire to use a facility here in Washington County.”

Miron said one big question is whether the federal government can circumvent the authority of the county or the city.

“We don’t know any of those answers, and we’re just speculating at this point in time, so I believe the letter will be a good response,” Miron said. “If there is a request, we’re going to be open about it. We’re going to try to encourage a public process. We’re going to work collaboratively with any community that might be identified for a location like that and, and try to identify the issues that might be of concern.”

Public health and safety concerns

Board Chair Karla Bigham said she has concerns about the public-health impacts of any possible ICE detention center, particularly when “we’re in the middle of an influenza outbreak.”

Bigham also raised concerns about the “added pressure and burden” a detention center would have on local law enforcement. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office and the Woodbury Police Department would have to provide security for traffic control and “just keeping the community safe,” she said. “Staff is already stretched thin, and so is law enforcement in both of those departments. I just have great concern when it comes to that area, too.”

Commissioner Michelle Clasen, who represents Woodbury, said she wanted her constituents to know that they have been heard and that “there are conversations happening toward action at this time.”

“I want to be very clear, though, that the county doesn’t have a decision-making role in this space,” she said.

An ICE detention center on Hudson Road in Woodbury could be “a public-health nightmare,” said Clasen.

“It doesn’t have the sanitation,” she said. “It doesn’t have the water, not to mention the lawsuits regarding water usage, if that even applies in that building. There’s still a multitude of questions. There’s a public process that has to happen.”

Clasen supported putting together an advocacy letter to federal delegates, “because they’re really the ones who would be able to get the information that we’re looking for or we would hope they can get more information … and ask that they really look into this for us.”

Unwanted federal attention?

Cox said she was torn because a letter about a possible detention center might draw unwanted attention from federal officials.

“I feel like the state of Minnesota already has a lot of attention from our federal government on us, and I don’t want to say that if we ignore it, it will go away, but that seems to be some of what we’re seeing with our federal government,” Cox said. “I’m reading the emails, I see what’s there, and I hear the concerns. Believe me, I hear them. I am not trying to just put my head in the sand and make this, you know, bury it, but I’m torn. Let’s start drafting it, but let’s wait to send it until maybe we have more information later.”

Oakdale resident Laura Kittel, who also spoke at the board meeting, said she hopes county officials will send a letter to make a humanitarian statement.

“A warehouse is not a suitable home for human beings,” she said. “ICE is pretty much targeting brown people indiscriminately. A lot of the people here are here legally and they haven’t committed crimes. Even if they’ve overstayed a visa, that’s a civil offense and not a criminal one, and yet they’re being treated like criminals. I think that this should be concerning to everybody in our community. I do not find it acceptable to have ICE show up in our neighborhood. … Immigrants have a right to be here. They’re human beings as well. If they followed the law, and even if they haven’t, they don’t deserve to be treated like animals.”

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has filed a lawsuit against a St. Paul nonprofit that purported to help people with job, housing and other community support claiming that instead, the president of the company used the money for personal expenses.

The lawsuit against Act for Cause and its president, Rajesh Mehta, claims that he used the money from the nonprofit like his own personal bank account spending money on his son’s college tuition, piano lessons, gym memberships, car payments, property taxes and other personal expenses, said a press release from Ellison’s office.

Mehta bought a building at 220 Robert Street South in St. Paul and then used it as the registered office of Act For Cause. He later transferred ownership of the building from the nonprofit to another company he owned and charged tenants rent.

“It is appalling that the defendant founded and used a nonprofit to serve his own personal interests, rather than help the people of Minnesota,” Ellison said. “My office launched this investigation and filed this lawsuit because I will not allow nonprofits to serve as a guise for nonprofit leaders to enrich themselves.”

Ellison claims that when Mehta closed the nonprofit, he transferred ownership of its $1 million building to one of his for-profit companies for free. He then allegedly rented the building to 10 to 15 businesses, and kept the rent money. In addition, the lawsuit claims that Mehta made large cash withdrawals from the nonprofit that were not accounted for.

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The lawsuit, filed in Ramsey County, also claims that because the nonprofit didn’t have a board of directors, as is required by law, there was no oversight into Mehta’s actions.

A call seeking comment to the Act for Cause office was unsuccessful as the phones were disconnected.

Ryan Kusilek wanted it noted, on the record, that he did not break into tears in the immediate aftermath of Wisconsin-River Falls’ 24-14 win over North Central in the Division III national title game Sunday night in Canton, Ohio.

But his wife did.

Kusilek, who quarterbacked the Falcons from 2012-15, earning all-WIAC Conference honors, stood with a smile pasted to his face and his eyes glued to Wisconsin-River Falls coach Matt Walker as the final minute of time ticked off the clock.

“I think it really hit me when they do the victory formation with the ‘V’ sign and whatever, and he takes the headset off and it’s like, ‘Oh my goodness, it’s happening,’ ” Kusilek recalled. “And you could tell he didn’t know what to think. I didn’t know what to think.”

Emotions flooded Kusilek we he watched Walker finally get the chance to embrace his wife, Jana, on the field.

“I can’t put to words someone who deserves it more than he does,” Kusilek said. “He lives it, it’s his everyday person. He cares, he gives a (darn) and he’s just like a really good dude and a great coach on top of that. If you’re in a locker room with Coach Walk — after a win, after a loss — the passion was there, whether it was the first week, the 10th week, a Tuesday practice. It’s always there, it’s always consistent, it’s always genuine.”

Asked for her favorite moment from a jubilation-filled evening in Ohio, Wisconsin-River Falls athletics director Crystal Lanning responded: “Just seeing Coach Walk be able to celebrate.”

A nation of onlookers fell in love with the Falcons’ head coach during his postgame television interview on ESPN, during which he reminisced about the program’s struggles early in his tenure, credited everyone from the program’s past and present for the success and said of River Falls: “There’s no place in the world like this town,” as his voice shook and tears streamed down his cheeks.

“He’s got the most engaging personality. Anytime he steps in front of a microphone, he’s on,” Lanning said. “But even when he’s not behind a microphone, anyone he’s talking to; it could be someone in a hallway, it could be someone in the office, it could be a student walking by. There’s just something about his personality that’s so engaging, and people are just drawn to him.”

Blake DuDonis coached the Wisconsin-River Falls women’s basketball team for three seasons before going to Fairfield in 2022 to serve as a Division I assistant under his wife, Carly Thibault-DuDonis. Together, they’ve morphed the Stags into a perennial NCAA tournament team.

Three and a half years after leaving the Division III program, DuDonis posted a photo of himself in a Falcons hat Sunday as he watched the title game from his home. He noted that coaching at Wisconsin-River Falls “was one of the great joys of my life.”

“The people are why,” DuDonis posted. “(First) day on the job, Matt Walker walks in (and says), ‘I’m taking you to lunch.’ ”

“That’s just the person he is,” Lanning said.

Palms up

Kusilek was surrounded by families of current players in the stands at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium on Sunday. He enjoyed hearing the belief they all expressed in the head football coach, and found it a little funny.

He shared their belief. It’s why he committed to the Falcons out of high school, fresh on the heel’s of Walker’s debut season, a one-win campaign. Kusilek was buying more into the person than the program.

“The culture that he had. We had to change it. There was a lot of kind of a, ‘Well, this is just how we do it’ attitude,” Kusilek recalled. “And (Walker) was like, ‘Nope, we’re going to change it. I’m here to change it. We’re going to work our tails off, and it’s going to take time, but you’ve got to believe. You’ve got to believe it’s going to happen.’ ”

Many of the sayings used by this year’s team originated early in Walker’s tenure: Win the day, Falcons fly together, palm up.

The latter, Kusilek noted, is essentially Walker’s version of P.J. Fleck’s “Row the Boat” culture at the University of Minnesota. The idea of “palm up” is you’re always giving to the program via your efforts and actions, rather than taking.

Guys bought in.

“It was fun to be on the front end of it,” Kusilek said. “Sure, obviously, would’ve loved to win a lot more games. But I just think that what his message was, his consistency and just absolute belief in it, that translated into us. It didn’t always translate into results on the field, but we believed in him, we believed in the program and we believed that, one day, this could be it.”

Lanning witnessed the buy-in and believed in the process. It’s why, while Walker has joked he should’ve been fired at multiple points in his first decade on duty, his boss never considered such a move.

“I could see everything else happening the right way,” Lanning said, “but I think maybe what’s satisfying is now other people can say, ‘Oh, it’s a good thing you stuck with it.’ ”

Because consistency, ingenuity and, yes, an upgrade in facilities, led to improvement in player ability. But while the athletes changed, the man leading them did not.

“I think that’s been really cool,” Kusilek said. “People, especially in this day and age, they want to play for someone that they can trust, that they can believe in. He’s here to develop men, to develop a team, develop a culture. He’s not here to just find his paycheck at a university, moving-up-the-ladder kind of thing.

“All the adversity, all the losing seasons, we all know what he went through. And the belief we had was the same belief these people had. And they put it together, which was great.”

Arrival

Lanning was overwhelmed, and in disbelief. The school held an alumni reception Saturday night in Canton for those who made the trip to see the title game. Upon her entrance into the restaurant, she saw countless people from all eras of the school’s history.

“There were times when we thought we had lost some of them along the way,” she said, “but they were all here, they all made the trip and it was just unbelievable.”

Later that evening, she received a request to have parents greet the team at the stadium the next day, ahead of the title game. She shot out one message, unsure of what the late-notice response would be. The next day, hundreds were on site.

During the title game, she pulled out her phone and captured videos of the packed stands filled with Falcons fans performing the team’s touchdown celebration.

Everyone was all in.

As the title game wound down, the AD found herself filled with pride. Wisconsin-River Falls has won the last two women’s hockey national titles. Now here the football team was not only representing the school in a title game, on ESPN, but winning it.

There’s no denying Wisconsin-River Falls as a bona fide, championship-caliber school.

“What we experienced here this weekend, I could never have envisioned it,” she said. “There’s something so exciting happening within this department.”

Lanning has been with the university for nearly 20 years. When she moved into the AD position a decade ago, the word “potential” was frequently tossed around.

“I always wanted to move beyond the potential to (the point where) we’re actually there,” Lanning said. “That’s the thing that keeps going through my mind: We don’t have to say, ‘We have the potential to be there’ anymore. We can say, ‘We are there.’ ”

Someone noted to Kusilek this was a “once-in-a-lifetime” experience. He felt compelled to offer a correction.

“It could be,” he said, “but it’s not going to be.”

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“Our schools are incredibly well-positioned to address hunger. They’re connected to nearly 1 million students and their families, and are one of the few resources that reach a citywide scale.”

A school lunch tray. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is entering City Hall during one of the most dire hunger crises in recent New York City history. Unprecedented cuts to federal food assistance and the lapse in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits during last year’s shutdown have brought this crisis into the spotlight.

However, the rising cost of groceries, threats to food benefits, and economic factors like inflation have been driving children and families into hunger since the pandemic. According to a March 2025 poll from No Kid Hungry, 86 percent of New Yorkers said the cost of food is rising faster than their income.

New York’s hunger crisis has been devastating for kids and families, but it also represents an opportunity for the new mayor—who made affordability his central campaign issue—to take a bold stance and ensure that every New Yorker stays fed.

Mayor Mamdani already has a solid track record on the issue. As a State Assembly member, he championed legislation to expand free meals for public school students. On the campaign trail, he also acknowledged that kids must eat to thrive. If he wants to make an immediate impact on the hunger crisis, there’s a place he can start reaching families on his first day in office: New York City Schools.

Our schools are incredibly well-positioned to address hunger. They’re connected to nearly 1 million students and their families, and are one of the few resources that reach a citywide scale. There are three things Mayor Mamdani can do at the start of his tenure to ensure kids get the food they need: maximize the reach of tried-and-true school meal programs; provide in-school resources to help families apply for SNAP and other benefits; and increase the number of school pantries. 

The Mamdani administration should work to ensure that successful school-based meal programs reach even more kids and families. Since New York City started adopting Breakfast in the Classroom programs in 2008, students have had higher attendance rates, better test scores, and fewer chronic health problems. Schools can go even further by fully implementing Breakfast After the Bell in every school to reduce the stigma of free breakfast programs and increase participation, especially as participation has tapered off. Similarly, the administration should actively promote and expand access to summer meal programs that help connect kids to meals when school isn’t in session. 

The administration can also tackle the hunger crisis by providing in-school resources to help families apply for SNAP and other benefits. With 1.8 million recipients in New York City, SNAP is the first line of defense against hunger. Yet many families don’t know they’re eligible or that enrollment in SNAP qualifies them for other programs, like Summer EBT grocery benefits. Schools are trusted messengers for kids and families and they have remarkable infrastructure in place to keep families informed. From creating resource pages on school websites to providing on-site eligibility and application assistance in schools, a little extra support can go a long way in helping eligible families make the most of these programs. 

Finally, adding more school pantries would help put healthy food back within reach for thousands of New York City children. Back in 2016, in partnership with the New York City Council, New York City Schools launched its first-in-the-nation food and hygiene pantries, which provide free food, cleaning supplies, and hygiene products in some school buildings. While many schools have taken steps to create their own pantries, the need is still there: a back-to-school poll from No Kid Hungry found that 40 percent of New York City families were worried about running out of food. Schools can collaborate with city agencies and nonprofit organizations to take inventory of existing pantries, assess school needs, and get new pantries or mobile markets up and running. 

New York City’s progress in the fight against hunger has come thanks to our schools and school nutrition staff, as well as our elected officials. In just the past few years, New York City schools have expanded access to school meal programs, rolled out even more food and hygiene pantries, and launched farm-to-school programs to bring healthy, local produce into classrooms. 

Mayor Mamdani will need to act quickly to build on that progress and address the city’s hunger crisis. If he wants to make an early impact, he should start with our schools. 

Rachel Sabella is the director of No Kid Hungry New York.

The post Opinion: To Fight Hunger in New York City, Start With Schools appeared first on City Limits.