May Township resident Patricia Isaacs was among dozens of residents of Washington County who gathered Tuesday morning to implore the county board to do all they can to stop any possible plans for an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in the county.
“My father was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home,” Isaacs said. “There’s an entire branch of my family that didn’t survive World War II. It was drummed into my head since childhood that we must never forget. Well, I’ve never forgotten. And we can’t forget. If we allow ICE to build a facility here that is essentially a concentration camp, we are complicit.”
More than 20 people spoke expressing concerns about a possible ICE detention facility on Hudson Road in Woodbury. Another 10 people submitted written comments.
Washington County Board Chair Karla Bigham said no one on the five-member county board is in favor of an ICE detention center. County and city officials previously have said they have not been notified of plans for a detention center and the property owner in question says they have not been contacted either.
“We can’t afford it financially,” Bigham said. “We can’t afford it from a public health perspective. We can’t afford it from a safety perspective. We cannot afford it from a Constitutional perspective. We cannot afford it from a due process perspective, and we darn well cannot afford it from a humanitarian perspective.”
Commissioner Karla Bigham (Courtesy of Washington County)
Bigham told audience members that the board members would be “discussing and deliberating” the best response. “What I can guarantee you is that we will not be quiet,” she said. “We will not be complacent. This is about protecting our freedoms and having ICE in our communities violating the Constitution and due process does not make our communities any more safe.”
Bigham said the board plans to send a letter to the county’s federal delegation expressing concerns about the possible detention center. The letter, which is expected to be finalized next week, asks federal officials to consider the public health and safety risks and community impact.
“Beyond the local safety and compatibility concerns, such a facility would place substantial additional strain on county services, including law enforcement, public health, transportation, and other departments, at a time when resources are already stretched to meet state and federal mandates,” a draft of the letter states.
Community comments
Carol Iwata, of Afton, a third-generation Japanese-American, told the county board that she now carries a photograph of her passport with her everywhere she goes, “just like St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her.”
Iwata’s mother’s family was incarcerated in a concentration camp during World War II, she said.
“My mother and her siblings were (U.S.) citizens, as were many of the people who were incarcerated,” Iwata said. “My family has experienced race-based unlawful detentions before, although we have seen from the awful tragedy of Renee Good that race doesn’t protect you from ICE.”
Janet Carlson, of Lake Elmo, said her family was forcibly removed by the Army in Seattle, Wash., in April of 1942 and incarcerated in Hunt, Idaho, in the Minidoka concentration camp.
“Today’s ICE actions bring all kinds of memories for me, even though I was not alive at the time,” she said. “These people were incarcerated without due process for two years, so this seems very similar.”
Carlson expressed concerns about the safety of the students at schools in the area of the possible detention center and said immigrants are key to the county’s economic development.
“Lake Elmo and Oakdale are on the list for the fastest-growing cities in Washington County, and that means we need construction workers,” she said. “People of color are heavily represented in the construction industry, and if we want to continue growing our community, we have to make sure that those people feel welcome and safe to work in Woodbury.”
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Stillwater resident Nick Gorski said his father, a World War II veteran who fought in Northern Italy with the 10th Mountain Brigade, would be horrified by what is happening today.
“I’m glad he’s not alive to see what’s going on right now,” Gorski said. “The people he fought against are calling the shots, and it’s up to us to stand up.”
Jennifer Vitale currently lives in Woodbury, but she was born and raised in Stillwater. She said she wanted to give the board “the parents’ perspective of what’s going on.”
Vitale said she has to tell her daughter and son-in-law that if they see ICE agents when they are at a store with their child they need to “turn around and come home — and that’s happened.”
“Parents are now thinking about where they can go and when they can go there,” she said. “They’re on the lookout for what’s around them. If there are ICE around, they turn around and go home. … Families in Woodbury are changing how we live in our community, and I think you guys should know that.”
Nicole Sauer, of Woodbury, said she has been impressed with the level of trust that the Woodbury Police Department has built with the city. “I don’t want that to be ruined,” she said.
‘Get out ahead on this thing’
Commissioner Bethany Cox, who has two young children, became emotional talking about how she, too, is “changing the way she moves around her community.”
Washington County Commissioner Bethany Cox (Courtesy of Cox)
“I’m sorry,” Cox said. “The trauma that this is causing in our communities is the part that I’m struggling with the most. Federal laws need to be followed, but there can be a way that it can be done that doesn’t hurt us as a community.”
Many of those in the audience on Tuesday were members of St. Croix Valley Indivisible, Afton Indivisible and Indivisible Twin Cities, groups working to “stand up for our democracy and the rights of our immigrant neighbors,” said Martha Winslow, a St. Mary’s Point resident who is the leader of St. Croix Valley Indivisible.
“Honestly, to call these facilities detention centers is a euphemism,” Winslow told the board. “I ask you to get out ahead on this thing. Call and write letters to anyone you can think that may have the power to stop this. Determine what powers you have to stop this before a specific proposal comes before you.”
Members of the Indivisible groups, along with officials from Woodbury and Washington County and members of the county’s immigrant communities, will hold a press conference at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Woodbury Central Park just prior to the 7 p.m. Woodbury City Council meeting at Woodbury City Hall, Winslow said.
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On Monday, U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem demanding that DHS and ICE immediately cease all operations in Minnesota. McCollum also wrote that she has been contacted by constituents and public officials concerned about reports that ICE is “actively soliciting warehouse space to hold as many as 1,500 detainees in Woodbury.”
McCollum’s letter asks Noem if ICE is in fact seeking to acquire a warehouse in Woodbury and, if so, what the address is and the estimated cost of developing the facility. She also seeks documentation about public health and sanitation standards.
“According to comments by ICE acting director Todd M. Lyons at a border conference in April, the Trump administration’s goal is to deport immigrants like Amazon moves packages: ‘Like Prime, but with human beings,” McCollum wrote. “Not only is this plan dehumanizing, it fails to account for the fact that structures designed for storage and shipping are not fit for human habitation, because they lack adequate ventilation and temperature controls.”
