Many millions of eyes are on Minneapolis this week as the city, the state, and indeed the nation try to cope with the violence unleashed by a federal immigration-enforcement "surge" that has taken the lives of two U.S. citizens and created a huge backlash against the Trump administration's mass-deportation initiative. Now Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar is stepping into that maelstrom and a very bright spotlight.
Protesters disrupted services on Sunday at the Cities Church in St. Paul, chanting "ICE OUT" and "Justice for Renee Good." The St. Paul Pioneer Press quoted Levy Armstrong as saying, "When you think about the federal government unleashing barbaric ICE agents upon our community and all the harm that they have caused, to have someone serving as a pastor who oversees these ICE agents is almost unfathomable to me."
The Justice Department is investigating whether Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey have impeded federal immigration enforcement through public statements they have made, two people familiar with the matter said Friday. The investigation, which both Walz and Frey said was a bullying tactic meant to threaten political opposition, focused on potential violation of a conspiracy statute, the people said.
The Republican chair of the Minnesota Fraud Committee, state representative Kristin Robbins, accused Governor Tim Walz of ignoring her repeated warnings about widespread fraud in the state's taxpayer-funded daycare system. Robbins, a declared GOP candidate for governor seeking to challenge Walz next year, says she alerted his administration last year to serious concerns that some daycare providers were siphoning off public funds despite extensive compliance violations. According to Robbins, those warnings were met with inaction.
I wouldn't be proud to have the largest Somalian look at their nation. Look how bad their nation is. It's not even a nation. It's just people walking around killing each other. Look, these Somalians have taken billions of dollars out of country. They have taken billions and billions of dollars. They have a representative, Ilhan Omar, who they say married her brother, that's a fraud, she tries to deny it now, but you can't really deny it because, you know, it just happened.
Lee said he wants to calm the "charged atmosphere" in the wake of Kirk's death. Bittner said the violence briefly gave her pause about running for office, but she concluded that "there's no way to solve this problem if we shrink back in fear." Lee, a former Brooklyn Park City Council member, easily won a three-way Democratic primary in August. Bittner, a real estate agent, was the sole Republican on the primary ballot for the seat in the heavily Democratic district.
