Dave Kleis’s argument in this article is particularly flimsy. First, let’s start with what started the fight. It starts in the opening paragraph by saying a “group of St. Cloud residents is gathering signatures for a petition that would put a refugee resettlement resolution on the November ballot. But some city officials say that would be illegal.”
Later, the article states “Furthermore, the resolution itself troubles Kleis because it’s similar to a resolution proposed by City Council member Jeff Johnson last fall to pause refugee resettlement here until a study determined the costs associated with it. Last fall, Kleis said immigration and refugee resettlement are not city issues. He shared the same sentiment Wednesday.”
Actually, this initiative is the direct result of the city council’s mishandling of Councilman Johnson’s resolution and the disrespect shown to the people by Councilman Goerger. The night that Councilman Goerger presented his resolution, the City Council intended to ambush Councilman Johnson and the people. Councilman Goerger’s resolution was given to the Council literally minutes before the vote. Discussion was limited at best. Later, Councilman Laraway called the question in an attempt to stop debate. The vote was taken on whether to end debate.
In her confusion, Council President Lewis adjourned the meeting without voting on the resolution. Councilman Johnson’s resolution wasn’t seriously debated. Further, people supporting Councilman Johnson’s resolution never got the chance to testify.
It was the most disgusting, chaotic City Council meeting I’ve ever watched. Council President Lewis looked as confused as Speaker Kelliher did on the final night of the 2007 legislative session. That night, Kelliher looked dazed and confused. But I digress.
Finally, Kleis’s argument is flimsy. Here’s what he said:
“To me, the U.S. Constitution is very clear. It gives only Congress that authority. It’s not the state. It’s certainly not the county or the city,” he said.
What Mayor Kleis is ignoring is 8 U.S. Code 1522(b), which states quite clearly that “The director shall develop and implement in consultation with representatives of voluntary agencies and state and local governments policies and strategies for the placement and resettlement of refugees within the United States.”
Without question, the Constitution gives Congress the authority to work with local units of government. In fact, without that ability, it’d be impossible to smoothly administer the laws Congress enacts. Mayor Kleis knows this.
Then there’s this:
Furthermore, the resolution itself troubles Kleis because it’s similar to a resolution proposed by City Council member Jeff Johnson last fall to pause refugee resettlement here until a study determined the costs associated with it. Last fall, Kleis said immigration and refugee resettlement are not city issues. He shared the same sentiment Wednesday.
What a pile of BS. Shame on Mayor Kleis for making that flimsy argument. First, I won’t dispute the fact that immigration and refugee resettlement policy is set by the federal government. What I’ll passionately dispute is Mayor Kleis’s statement that this isn’t a city issue. It’s costing city taxpayers money. If Mayor Kleis wants to argue that there isn’t a cost to the city budget, I’ll passionately dispute that, too. Does he really want to argue that there isn’t a cost to the City for health inspections of refugee-owned restaurants? Will he argue that there aren’t any law enforcement costs related to refugees?
Just because there isn’t a line item that’s titled ‘Health Inspections — Refugees’ doesn’t mean there isn’t a cost associated with it.
Further, saying that there isn’t a cost with educating refugees, while not officially on the City’s operating budget, is foolish. How much property taxes do city residents pay to ISD 742 to pay for translators and English learning for refugees?
Mayor Kleis, why shouldn’t citizens have a say in such matters? It isn’t like you’re opposed to taking federal money for other things. Why are you opposed to telling the federal government that it has to pay for the people it dumps in our laps? It’s that or they reform the law so that it requires Volags to pick up the entire cost associated with resettled refugees.
If taxpayers pay taxes that support refugees, then we damn well better have the right to air our grievances. In fact, the Constitution gives us that exact right. It’s called the First Amendment, which says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Mayor Kleis, you should ask one of your legal eagles whether it’s legal to restrict the people’s ability to address the city government in terms of their grievances. If they’re honest with you, they’ll tell you that restricting the petition process to only ordinances is unenforceable because it violates the First Amendment.
We The People retain that right. That right isn’t given to us by the government. It’s given to us by “Nature’s God.”
After spending 10 years of my life serving on multiple overlapping Task Force Projects connected to the MN DHS & the MN Supreme Court, and 6 years on the Commissioner’s Advisory Committee for the MN DHS (when Mr. Kleis was a MN State Senator), I can assure all of your readers, that this behavior pattern is nothing new. …For Mayor Kleis, or any of these like-minded adolescents dressed up in adult clothing.
Simply put, they do not want to know, what they do not want to know… Period! And, if you insist upon telling them what they do not want to know (Councilman Dr. Jeff Johnson - Dr.John Palmer - and concerned citizens of St. Cloud per example), they will do everything in their power to marginalize, and to destroy you, just like the adult-children they are.
The “COSTS are many, relating to this overall matter, and not all of them are connected to taxpayer assets either. A number of them are costs relating to hidden and very serious Public Health risks, which have been, and will continue to be, as lethal as the results of the gun toting, knife wielding, bomb setting, little imported maniacs, erroneously referred to as “refugees”, currently occupying space in St. Cloud, Waite Park, and so on. A fact that which Mayor Kleis and the St. Cloud City Council (excepting Jeff Johnson) has bent over backwards to ignore.
And, now we have the nationally publicized “Daycare Center” billing-theft Scandal & Medicaid Fraud Scandal, on top of all of that as well now, putting Minnesota; St. Cloud as well, on the national radar screen, as one of the most corrupted states in the entire country, and the national poster-state for chronic stupidity and corruption…all for thew sake of cheap labor, and cheap VOTES.
A few months back, I gave Dave Kleis a book, entitled: No Go Zones”, referencing what has happened to western Europe and the UK, and America as well, having employed the very same chronic denial of this very hard truth today. That is, that this “social justice” mass migration/mass immigration experiment has not worked anywhere on the planet, where this exercise in futility has been tried, and has failed miserably. My guess, is that Mayor Kleis has not even opened up the cover of that book, even though the St. Cloud City Hall has been threatened this year with an attempted bomb/arson scare, by one of his constituents, who obviously did not get the we are “A Welcoming & Just Community” memo, as passed by the Council in the past several months..
My question? (Cost related) How many body bags and hospital beds have to be filled with Minnesota citizens, before “The Public Authority” actually does its job, and “protects and serves” the people of Minnesota? How many?
How many multiples of Millions of Minnesota taxpayer dollars have to be stolen from Minnesota citizens (annual cost approaching $500 Million or more annually - all sources), and sent back to Somalia in support of that barbaric, civil-war-torn hell-on-earth, before people like Dave Kleis, congressman, Tom Emmer, the St. Cloud City Council, and many others, even begin to tell the truth, to themselves, and to the people of Minnesota?
Shame on Dave Kleis and all the rest for their part in this tragic period of time in the history of Minnesota, impacting so many good people in Minnesota.
Just look at western Europe and the UK to witness OUR future.
…We are hanging on by a thread now in Minnesota. How much more carnage must there be?
This is not simply about money or votes Dave. Lives are at stake here.
Ignore that, and you are in danger of losing your very soul my friend..