How the Trump Travel Ban Is Impacting Minnesotans

Transcript

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HOST: You're listening to North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live, a daily newscast about what it means to live in Minnesota.

ANCHOR: In today's news, Otter Tail County Awards big bucks to fight drug addiction. Then, how the Trump travel ban is impacting Minnesotans. And, the Fond Du Lac Band breaks ground on a new elder housing complex.

I'm Chantel SinGs.

Otter Tail County, located in West-Central Minnesota, is taking decisive action against the opioid crisis by allocating 400-thousand dollars in settlement funds to five local organizations. The grants, part of a broader 3 million-dollar settlement, will support initiatives like a youth engagement program in Pelican Rapids and recovery housing at a halfway home. The funds will be used on prevention, treatment, and recovery efforts. The money supports two years of programs with the hope of creating a lasting positive change in the community.

Up next: The Trump Administration is preventing people from twelve countries, including Somalia, from entering our country. Minnesota has one of the largest Somali and Hmong populations in the U.S. Reporter Xan Holston looks at how the executive order is impacting some Minnesotans.

Xan Holston: A new executive order revives and expands an immigration policy introduced during President Trump's first term, restricting immigration and travel from 19 countries, among them Somalia and Laos, two nations with deep ties to Minnesota. Ahmed Abdi, a radio host and former reporter for the St Cloud Times, said the renewed policy wreaks havoc on immigrants and refugees and family members already living in the state.

Ahmed Abdi: This refugee process or immigration it's not something that you can do within six months or within a year.

Xan Holston: The new policy completely bans all immigration and travel from Somalia, citing national security. But Abdi said it disrupts a long and highly vetted process. During Trump's first term, he said many Somali immigrants had already cleared most hurdles, only to be blocked at the final step.

Ahmed Abdi: They were supposed to get their visa from the embassy after five or six or seven years, then, because of the executive order last time, were stopped.

Xan Holston: Some of those visa applications were reinstated under President Biden. Abdi also questioned the logic and rule at a time when Trump is advocating for white South African immigration.

Trump audio: "…but we have thousands of people that want to come into our country, and they're white farmers and they feel that they're going to die."

Ahmed Abdi: It's racist politics, I mean, because you don't want to bring one refugee person, but you do want to bring another refugee?

Xan Holston: The story is different but similarly tense for Minnesota's Lao and Hmong communities. Saengmany Ratsabout is a Minnesota based historian who studies Southeast Asian diaspora communities. He says this new executive order didn't come as a surprise.

Saengmany Ratsabout: This is actually version two of the visa ban, specifically for Laos.

Xan Holston: While the new policy doesn't fully ban travel from Laos, it does suspend most visa categories, including student tourism and business visas. The Trump administration argues the move is necessary because countries like Laos refuse to accept deportees from the US, as well as concerns about overstayed visas. Ratsabout says it goes deeper than that.

Saengmany Ratsabout: This continued pressure that's been going on for over 20 years for Laos to sign a repatriation agreement with the US.

Xan Holston: Many of the people the US wants to deport aren't recognized by Laos citizens, so it won't accept them back.

Saengmany Ratsabout: In order to be accepted to a country, they have to be a national and so from that standpoint, it's difficult for the government of Laos to agree with the US on anything.

Xan Holston: Ratsabout said concerns extend beyond deportation.

Saengmany Ratsabout: Even Lao folks who are US citizens are very anxious and very fearful of not being able to come back to the US when they visit Laos.

Xan Holston: While the state has a large network of Southeast Asian advocacy organizations that will continue to fight for the rights of immigrants and refugees, Ratsabout said communities may be reluctant to speak out right now.

Saengmany Ratsabout: It's a catch-22 right? How loud do we want to be about it, right? And if we are loud enough that also attracts attention.

Xan Holston: For North Star Stories. I'm Xan Holston.

ANCHOR: You are listening to North Star Stories.

Elders from the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa will soon have a new home. The Band broke ground recently on a new six-million-dollar senior housing facility just across the street from the original building. Leaders say the upgrade was long overdue. The current building, which has been there more than 40 years, no longer meets fire or ADA codes. The new building will include 18 one-bedroom apartments and is expected to be completed in about a year. The project has been in the works for several years, but got slowed down by the pandemic.

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HOST: North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. Online at ampers dot org.