Dear Neighbors, The Minnesota Legislature returned from its Easter and Passover break this week, which also serves as a nice split between the first and second half of the legislative session. It was a time for legislators to step away from committee rooms and the House Floor for a moment, catch up on some work, and plan for the final weeks of session. Our adjournment date of May 18 will be here before you know it. During the break, I hope my House Republican colleagues went back to their communities and connected with actual Minnesotans, not just the far-right factions of their party that have been driving their work this year. Before we left for break, my DFL colleagues and I managed to force a vote on the House Floor on several crucial pieces of legislation, all of them focused on improving safety in our schools and communities, and all of them broadly supported by Minnesotans. The first was my bill requiring ICE agents and other federal officers obtain a judicial warrant to enter a Minnesota school for immigration enforcement purposes. I think we can all agree this would be an incredibly low bar. In fact, this WAS the law until the second Trump administration. At the very least, armed and masked federal agents shouldn’t be barging into our schools on a whim. Even the first Trump administration thought so. You might remember that my bill did not pass through its first hearing, as it was blocked by the House Republicans on our committee. This, even after some of those same Republicans sent a letter to then-Secretary Noem to limit ICE’s activity near Minnesota’s schools. They would rather send do-nothing letters than use their legislative power to actually do something to keep our kids safe. But those were just the Republicans in the Education Policy Committee. Minnesotans deserve to know where every member of the Minnesota House stands on this issue. All we needed was just ONE Republican to vote for this bill to advance it through the legislative process. The same legislation received bipartisan support in the Senate, so there was some hope. How could anyone look at the chaos, fear, and violence from Operation Metro Surge and decide that was acceptable? |