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Ii City Council candidates who vocally supported pausing the resettlement of refugees in St. Deject lost their elections last week, simply they nevertheless received considerable voter support — a strong indicate that the issue remains unsettled.

John Palmer and Liz Baklaich lost to incumbents Dave Masters and Steve Laraway. Palmer, though, received 1,650 votes, nigh 43 percent , while Baklaich got 2,167 votes, 46 percent.

Their relative strength in the ballot comes more than than a twelvemonth after the city voted in support of being a welcoming community.

St. Cloud is dwelling to a large Somali-American population that includes people who came as refugees and were settled past Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota and other nonprofits. Others moved here or were born here. Most are Muslim.

Palmer and Baklaich are part of Concerned Community Citizens, a group whose members often speak at quango meetings, questioning the public costs of refugee resettlement. They sometimes wear red hats reading, "Make St. Cloud Great Again," a nod to President Trump's signature phrase, and contend city officials aren't listening to them.

"I'm glad they're not part of our city leadership, just actually, there were thousands of people that voted for them," said Natalie Ringsmuth, founder and managing director of the group #UniteCloud, which works to overcome racial and religious divides.

"If there are thousands of people in St. Cloud who believe the right way to treat their neighbors is to dehumanize them, then nosotros still accept a lot of piece of work to practice," said Ringsmuth, who won a seat last week on the St. Cloud school board.

"Nosotros're still a divided customs."

The divisions run beyond greater Minnesota.

A 2017 survey by MPR News and its sis organization, the APM Research Lab, constitute people in the country's largest urban areas tended to say Minnesota was on the right runway in welcoming immigrants and refugees. But in rural areas and St. Cloud, feelings were dissimilar.

In St. Deject, just 39 percent of those responding believed Minnesota was on the "right track" with immigrants, while 49 percentage said the state was headed the incorrect mode.

Views on immigration and refugees

David Montgomery for MPR News

Abdi Daisane, a Somali-American business owner and graduate educatee at St. Cloud State Academy, took some comfort from the ballot results.

"It kind of shows that a majority of St. Cloud wants some mutual sense people in there," said Daisane, who ran unsuccessfully for the Urban center Council two years ago.

Daisane said he doesn't believe that near St. Cloud residents share the view that refugees are bringing issues into the customs.

"There's a lot of great people who we experience that they are really our allies and supportive to our community," he said.

People agree signs during a St. Deject Metropolis Council discussion on moratoriums related to refugee resettlement Monday, October. 23, 2017, at metropolis council chambers in St. Cloud, Minn.

Dave Schwarz | St. Cloud Times via AP

A yr ago, outgoing council fellow member Jeff Johnson tried to get the metropolis to pass a moratorium on refugee resettlement. The City Quango rejected that proposal and instead passed a resolution in back up of St. Cloud existence a "just and welcoming community."

Daisane said many Somali-Americans were inspired to become out and vote this yr in role because of DFL state Rep. Ilhan Omar, who last week became the commencement Somali-American elected to Congress in the Minneapolis-area fifth Commune.

Only he said there was also fear virtually candidates seen as anti-immigrant or anti-Muslim.

Other statewide candidates voiced support for slowing or pausing immigration and refugee resettlement, including Jeff Johnson, the Republican candidate for governor who lost to Tim Walz.

People concord signs while leaving after a urban center council meeting Monday, Oct. 23, 2017, in St. Cloud City Hall in St. Cloud, Minn.

Dave Schwarz | St. Cloud Times via AP

Palmer said he didn't campaign for St. Cloud City Council on the refugee issue, but on broader themes similar criminal offence and economic development. He said he'due south worried about increased poverty and economic decline in St. Cloud.

"I don't want information technology to end up the way I've seen other communities that become core cities that lose tax paying citizens and proceeds citizens requiring high public service expenditures," Palmer said.

Baklaich declined a recorded interview but has spoken at City Council meetings nearly what she describes as the threat of Sharia law on American guild, an argument commonly used by anti-Muslim groups.

Newly-elected council member Paul Brandmire said that while he's concerned Somali refugees have been resettled too chop-chop in St. Deject, straining local resources, he wants to reach out to the Somali-American community and build trust.

"It's going to exist something that needs to exist dealt with slowly," he said. "It needs to be dealt with with respect and conversations on both sides."

Masters, who defeated Palmer, said he hopes the metropolis can motility frontwards and focus on other problems, such as replacing the jobs that will be lost when major employer Electrolux leaves St. Cloud.

He knows refugee resettlement remains a divisive event in the community, but added, "I think that nosotros're working through it. My philosophy is that we come up together work together and detect solutions together."

November. 2017: MPR News hosted a conversation about immigration with St. Cloud citizens

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Source: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/11/12/stcloud-minnesota-somali-refugees-election-division

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