Minneapolis grieves while Iowa Republicans pretend this is fine

Don’t mess with people who live where it’s cold, on purpose.

In the Twin Cities, which ICE is trying to beat into submission, they embrace cold. They have carnivals celebrating ice. Minnesota hosts the World Snow Celebration and the U.S. Pond Hockey Championship. They’ll stand for hours in freezing temps to watch a sporting event. Even the Twins season opener. In April.

They can stand the discomfort. It’s as if they’re born bundled up in goose down, flannel and wrapped in Gore-Tex. The cold sharpens their minds and steels their resolve. They will outlast you. They’ll shovel you a path straight out of town.

Make them angry, and they’ll meet you outside. If you beat them, dozens will take their place. If you kill them, hundreds, maybe thousands, will gather. They just keep coming as if materializing from clouds of tear gas.

When will all the sawed-off Napoleons learn? Their grand plans for conquest will end up buried in snowdrifts. Greg Bovino has met his Waterloo. You hate to see it.

After Border Patrol agents shot and killed ER nurse Alex Pretti, who was trying to help a woman knocked down by agents, the nation had seen enough. Even the dark lord of hate, also known as Stephen Miller, was left mumbling about agents not following “protocol.”

The “border czar” Tom Homan says a drawdown is planned. We’ll believe it when we see it. Homan met with Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, which is a good sign. Many on the right blame Walz and Frey for stoking the violence.

But have elected leaders ever faced something like this? What’s the playbook? Imagine if a Democratic president sent thousands of agents to Tallahassee, Oklahoma City or Boise to arrest members of right-wing “terrorist” organizations. I’m sure Ron DeSantis would remain perfectly calm.

I suppose we’re supposed to be grateful. It’s the Trump way. The president creates chaos and then wants us to thank him for backing off. At least two people would still be alive today if Trump hadn’t unleashed his reckless immigration hunters into quiet neighborhoods, turning them into war zones.

We just can’t break free from America’s endless streak of racism, nativism and blaming our problems on any “other” who might reach our teeming shores.

Further south here in Iowa, we tend to hunker down in the winter. Our Republican overlords always have a warm, safe place to think up stupid ideas and hide out from reality. The Golden Dome of Wisdom, now redder than blood spattered on snow, can be a sensory deprivation chamber.

That’s why Iowa Republicans are still considering a bill that would require state and local law enforcement to cooperate fully with ICE and, presumably, its tactics. A subcommittee meeting on the bill was canceled this week, but they’re just waiting until the coast is clear.

Ask the Minneapolis police if they think it’s a good idea. The department’s 600 officers were overwhelmed by thousands of ICE agents jack-booting their way through the city, with massive firepower, little training and no apparent understanding of constitutional rights.

ICE called the police to save them from protesters. Protesters and residents called police to save them from ICE. The police were stuck in the middle, unable to swiftly respond. They feared hard-won public trust built since George Floyd’s murder would fall like the mercury.

So, I’m sure sheriffs and police chiefs across Iowa are eager to be entangled in this mess. Davenport’s City Council voted this past week to oppose the bill, arguing that local law enforcement decisions should be made by local authorities.

Other states are looking for ways to protect their people, according to the New York Times. Colorado is considering a bill that would allow people to sue federal law enforcement for violating their civil rights. California is considering bills that would require any shooting by ICE be subject to an independent state investigation. ICE also would be barred from using state property as a staging area for future surges.

Washington state would curtail access by federal agents to child care facilities, health care facilities and election sites, the Times reports.

Iowa Democrats, led by Rep. Angel Ramirez of Cedar Rapids, are proposing bills that would bar ICE agents from grabbing people in courthouses, schools and churches and prohibit agents from hiding their identity. Iowans would be guaranteed “due process and constitutional protections.”

“Iowans across every political party, every faith, every corner of our state, are watching ICE operations in Minnesota with deep concern and heartbreak,” Ramirez said.

But Iowa Republican lawmakers are more interested in reaping the supposed political rewards of demonizing immigrants than standing up for Iowans against an authoritarian power grab.

Meanwhile, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird joined yet another court brief filed by red-state attorneys general. This time, they oppose a federal judge’s ruling that ICE likely violated Minnesotans’ constitutional rights.

The brief was filed after Renee Good was killed by an ICE agent who fired into her SUV, but before Pretti was shot by two agents after he’d been subdued. An appeals court temporarily stayed the judge’s ruling before it hears arguments.

The Des Moines Register reported that, for some reason, Bird didn’t send out a press release touting her role in the legal challenge. Weird.

"Federal law enforcement efforts in Minnesota and across the country are focused on arresting illegal immigrants who have committed crimes," Bird said in a statement to the Register. "As attorney general, I support those ongoing efforts."

Does anyone still buy this “worst of the worst” stuff?

Bird already weighed in to support Trump’s drive to eliminate birthright citizenship for kids born in the U.S. to undocumented parents. Birthright citizenship was added to the Constitution to establish rights for formerly enslaved Americans.

“The Fourteenth Amendment was never intended to reward people for breaking the law,” Bird argues. “That’s why I’m defending President Trump’s executive order to close the birthright citizenship loophole and restore the Fourteenth Amendment’s original intent.”

Of course, there were many state laws Black Americans faced as they tried to become full U.S. citizens and lay claim to protections in the Bill of Rights. The amendment’s promise of equal protection under the law was used to strike down those state laws.

So, it was meant to protect Americans from discrimination and oppression at the hands of government. Yeah, clearly it has no relevance now. Does Bird think these Trumpian jokers should have the power to determine who is a citizen and which brown people are not? What could go wrong?

Minneapolis is Exhibit A.

Also, our D.C. delegation continued to wrap itself in glory at this pivotal moment.

HuffPost political reporter Igor Bobic asked Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, if he thinks it’s appropriate for ICE to enter homes without warrants.

“Ask a constitutional lawyer,” Grassley said. “I'm a farmer.”

We’re lucky to have such bold leadership in these trying times.

It feels like a blizzard roared in and buried our rights, ideals and values. White snow, white supremacy and a polar vortex of violence. Minnesotans grieving their dead are bruised but not broken. It will be a cold day in hell before that happens.

(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com