Human Dignity

At the Climate Land Leaders Initiative, we treat each other with respect. That respect is key as we work toward our vision that plant, animal, and human communities thrive through our land stewardship. Respecting each other involves civility, and without civility in our organization – and in our communities and our nation – we descend into cruelty, fear, and hatred. That’s where many Americans are.

How can it be acceptable to call a whole nationality “garbage”? To arrest people because of their skin color, even if they are U.S. citizens or following legal paths to citizenship? To break into people’s homes without a warrant? To smash car windows and tackle people at gunpoint? Pope Leo XIV is troubled by the violent and at times “extremely disrespectful” ways migrants are being treated. “We have to look for ways of treating people humanely, treating people with the dignity that they have.”

Along with the ICE killings, here are examples of people in the Twin Cities not treated with dignity – U.S. citizens, others on a legal path to citizenship, and others who entered the country illegally.

• Agents break into a U.S. citizen’s home and drag him out in his underwear in freezing temperatures (one source: Fox News).
• Children of immigrants are too terrified to go to school because ICE agents attack and arrest them and their parents.
• People with brown skin are too terrified to leave the home to get food, as ICE patrols food banks waiting for immigrants to arrive (source: also personal community with food bank worker).
• People are too fearful to seek medical treatment. Here’s one example from the Star Tribune: A pregnant woman in her third trimester stopped attending prenatal visits or answering her phone. “A nurse went to her home and found her eight centimeters dilated, laboring alone and too terrified to seek help,” said a doctor. “She delivered just two hours later.”

The Rule of Law

Without the aspirational ideals and brilliant concepts first laid out by our founding fathers and mothers, we are nothing as a nation. I have long taught citizenship to folks from a variety of nations. We practice the citizenship test questions, including one I have always been proud to teach: “What is ‘the rule of law?” The answer: “No one is above the law.” Right now, the rule of law is being severely challenged, as legal scholars and judges of both political parties have made it abundantly clear. Here is language from a judge appointed by George W. Bush: ICE has ignored “dozens of court orders” in recent weeks and its failures have caused “significant hardship” for immigrants — many of whom, he noted, have lived and worked in the United States for years and “done absolutely nothing wrong.” The judge detailed the consequences of ICE’s noncompliance: detainees held longer than judges allowed, people transferred out of Minnesota despite court rulings, and others flown to Texas only to be released there “and told to figure out a way to get home.”

Immigrants are Key to Our Food System

Everyone I know agrees that violent criminals who entered this country illegally should be humanely deported. Most agree that the United States has a broken immigration system. I respect the viewpoint that those who entered this country illegally should be deported. However, if you shop at the grocery store rather than raise all of your own food, you have long taken advantage of the hard labor of immigrants. They are the ones slaughtering animals for your food, milking cows for your ice cream, and harvesting your fruits and vegetables. 

Dissent is American

As Juventino Meza, an attorney with the Immigrant Law Center says, “the forces that are attacking the rule of law and immigrants are also actively attacking environmental protections. These attacks on the law weaken the very fiber of our democracy. It feels like hyperbole to say that, but it is not. It’s reality today, right now. These forces want to silence voices of dissent.”

We welcome your thoughts and opinions on our newsletter and blog. Please first check out reputable news services (not videos online) and reach out with your comments. You will not find anyone more conflict-adverse than I am, but I am even more committed to civil discourse – and to my country.

You won’t be sorry you spoke out and acted in any way you safely can.*

Ways to Help

• Treat kindly those you agree with – and those you disagree with even more.
• Wherever you live, support your local immigrant communities and businesses and tell them you are glad they are here.
• Contact your elected officials.
• Make a donation to help the overwhelmed Immigration Law Center provide legal assistance to Minnesota immigrants.
• Make a donation to other groups providing aid to Minnesota immigrants. Here’s a good list.
• Join an effort to reach across the political divide. Better Angels is one.

*A caveat from a Climate Land Leaders Board member: “The extent of harm that can come from speaking out depends on one’s online footprint. With the intense hateful rhetoric and precedent for pardoning partisan violence that is present in our country now, I think it’s hard to say what forms of activism are safe. Morally/ethically, I’m sure our readers won’t regret standing up, but this situation is different from anything that has come before.”