Donald Trump and all maga Republicans have immigrant histories but many Americans do not have passports to prove ethnicity except their skin color

An American citizen who might be unable to show a passport❓

A family history essay published in the MinnPost non-orofit newspaper: Americans do not need passports to prove their immigrant history. Too many are wrongly profiled based on the color of their skin. 

My passport is in storage, but my family’s immigration story is top of mind:  During these Donald Trump troubling times, it’s worth remembering those who came before us in Minnesota.

During this "Trumpzi-istic" scary time of unprecedented anger, sorrow and disbelief, those of us not being pulled out of cars, afraid to go to work or school or much worse may struggle to better understand and more fully relate to what’s going on. 

My passport is in my bank safety box. My summer tan faded to “lily white.” I’m accused of having a “Minnesota accent” only when I visit my younger daughter, a public school teacher in Boston.

So, as an admitted “policy wonk” wanting to better understand and more fully relate, I’ve asked myself, “What’s the relevance of the violence currently being imposed on ‘New Minnesotans’ to current policy and political debates on ‘birthright citizenship,’ how we define an ‘American’ and the importance and relevance of ‘assimilation?’”

Also, being an avid family historian, I‘ve asked myself, “While learning to speak English and like eating hot dogs, is it also OK to preserve ancestral culture and non-English language use and proficiency❓Could any of the branches on my family tree help me better understand what’s now being felt by, done to and said about today’s ‘New Minnesotans?’”

Here’s some of what has partially answered my questions, but has still left me angry, sorrowful and in a state of disbelief:

In 1871, my maternal grandfather, Carl Johnson, was born in Sweden and then, at age 5, came to America with his mother, Anna Johns daughter. I don’t know if either of them ever became “legal” or who Carl’s father was. But there must have been an out-of-wedlock birth or divorce before they arrived. Records of the Swedish Lutheran Church in my West Central Minnesota hometown, Elbow Lake, document that my great grandmother’s marriage in 1883 to a fellow Swedish immigrant farmer, Mons Olson, took place not at the church, but before a judge in nearby Alexandria.

By 1910, my grandfather was manager of the Elbow Lake telephone exchange when he married my grandmother, Helen Gunderson. Helen was the oldest daughter of a Norwegian immigrant farmer and Grant County pioneer, Henry Gunderson. 

In 1923, my immigrant grandparents became owners of the telephone exchange in tiny nearby Wendell — rescuing it from bad service, obsolete equipment, high rates and near-bankruptcy. And, not unlike the (Roosevelt-era) Rural Electrification Act (REA), Carl and Helen (to quote a subscriber) “fixed what was wrong and brought telephone service to farm families in the surrounding countryside.”

I also know that my grandparents’ son, Harlan Johnson, subsidized his parents’ paltry income by serving in the (again, Roosevelt-era) Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). My uncle Harlan, a first-generation immigrant, then served in the U.S. Army, helping rescue North Africa, Italy and Western Europe from the evils of fascism and Nazi tyranny during World War II.

On the other side of my family tree, I know (because I have the certificate) that my paternal great grandfather, Heinrich Schröder, became a naturalized U.S. citizen after he and his brother, Herman, came to America in the early 1870s, from the Hanover principality of Germany. First in Scott County and then in rural Long Prairie, Heinrich was a successful immigrant farmer and brickmaker.

I also know Heinrich’s youngest son, my grandfather, Henry W. Schroeder Sr., became a successful community banker in Long Prairie. This first-generation immigrant’s success resulted, in part, because he forgave or delayed payments (sometimes making them out of his own pocket) on loans to Depression-era farmers and small-business owners on the verge of bankruptcy. He also attracted loyal customers by making his bank a kind of “community cooperative” — retaining ownership of 50-plus percent of the bank’s stock, but selling the rest to dozens of people in the local community.

Nearly a century later, what is now American Heritage National Bank is in its fourth-generation of Schroeder family management and fifth-generation of Schroeder family ownership. 

One of Minnesota’s largest family-owned banks, American Heritage has seven branches — from Browerville and Long Prairie through St. Cloud to the Twin Cities.

Finally, I know my grandfather’s youngest son (and my father), Henry W. Schroeder Jr., left home with his cousin the day after their high school graduation in 1941, to work in a Los Angeles aircraft plant. A year later, this second-generation immigrant enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps and was a mechanic on air bases in World War II’s India-China-Burma Theater. 

Later, he also served in China during its transition from Japanese occupation. And, he was a successful small-business owner and dedicated community leader in Elbow Lake for over 60 years.

Many Minnesotans can tell similar stories. But, during these very troubling Trumpzi times, my inquiry reminded me that my great grandparents and grandparents were immigrants who didn’t speak English and attended “immigrant churches.” Until my grandmother, Helen Gunderson Johnson, died in 1967, our family had lutefisk (Scandanivian dried white fish) every Christmas Eve. 

And, every Good Friday, “Grandma Helen” attended a Norwegian-language service at Elbow Lake’s St. John’s Lutheran Church.

To this day, on Christmas Eve, I insist that our (now Norwegian, Swedish, Irish, German, English, Japanese) family eat Swedish meatballs that I make and Norwegian-inspired lefse that I butter. In 1979, while publishing the local weekly newspaper, my wife, Dana, and I helped create “Flekkefest,“ an annual celebration of Elbow Lake’s Sister City relationship with Flekkefjord, Norway.

I’ve also twice traveled to Norway, connected with distant cousins there and am a member of Sons of Norway and the Norwegian-American Historical Association. 

On July 4th (and other official holidays), our family flies the American flag. But, on Syttende Mai (Norwegian Independence Day), anyone driving by our home in Southwest Minneapolis will see a Norwegian flag – also red, white and blue – waving proudly in the mid-May breeze.

So, though I’ve made some progress on my original struggle to better understand and better relate, serious questions remain. Has the Johnson-Gunderson-Schroeder-Olson-Maron family adequately “assimilated❓” Should my grandfather and great grandmother have been sent back to Sweden because they were “illegals❓” Is it “un-American” to attend an annual Norwegian language church service❓ To maintain food or other “un-American” traditions❓ To celebrate a small rural community’s ethnic heritage or, once a year, fly a “foreign flag❓”

What about second- and third-generation immigrants who helped defeat fascists, Nazis and imperialists in Europe and Asia during World War II❓ What about their decades of support for small business owners, working people and family farmers in small rural communities like Long Prairie, Elbow Lake and Wendell❓ And, decades from now, will these and similar questions still be used to hunt down and impose deadly violence on current and future generations of “New Minnesotans”❓ I sure hope not.

Jon Schroeder, now retired, is a senior fellow for the Minneapolis-based nonprofit Education Evolving. A Macalester College graduate, Schroeder was previously a Citizens League research associate, co-publisher and editor of a rural weekly newspaper, a senior communications, policy and management staff member for U.S. Senator Dave Durenberger, and a leader in state and national initiatives to design and promote education policy reform under a joint venture of Hamline University and the St. Paul-based nonprofit, Center for Policy Design.

Donald Trump and Kristi Noem and Tom Homan must stop failed quota numbers used by ICE in their illegal dragnet

Let me get this? So, children are captured and detained by ICE because the evil operations must reach deportation quotas❓  OMG❗💢

Deportation quotas are a 2026, version of Vietnam body counts
In Vietnam, soldiers were rewarded based on body counts. ICE deportation quotas are a chilling reminder of that policy.

Echo essay published in the MinnPost in Minneapolis Community Voices by Ralph Brauer. 

Officials and the mainstream press debating our immigration crisis are ignoring the elephant in the room: the policy of setting deportation quotas. To a historian, this policy ominously recalls the infamous Vietnam body count.

The flawed brainchild of then U.S.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, the body count supposedly measured the success of combat operations by tracking the number of enemy soldiers killed in each encounter. 

When troops realized they were being graded on how many corpses they could amass, this macabre idea quickly ran off the rails. Seymour Hersh discovered “there were three-day passes for the men who achieved high body counts; sometimes whole units would be rewarded.” As Hersh showed with stomach-churning detail, it did not matter whose body was counted or how they died.

If this sounds familiar, it should. The administration has dictated that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deport 1 million people by the end of the year. If we divide this number among the states it yields an average of 20,000 per year, per state.

The Migration Policy Institute calculates Minnesota has 100,000 undocumented immigrants. Complicating this, 41% of families have children under 18 eligible for birthright citizenship. Three-quarters of the work-eligible undocumented are employed, with 20% in manufacturing, 11% in construction, and 10% in health care. Imagine the impact on communities if they lose these workers. It is estimated that the Minneapolis occupation has cost some businesses 50-80% of their revenue because ICE causes workers to stay home and drives away customers. We don’t yet know what it has cost the state economy.

ICE has also provided questionable information about how many arrests are truly the “worst of the worst” or the fate of those who disappeared into its American gulag. Last November, the conservative Cato Institute estimated 73% of ICE detainees have no prior criminal conviction. The Homeland Security website says, “70% of all ICE arrests are of criminal illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the United States.” These widely divergent numbers suggest ICE body counts are as reliable as those from the Vietnam War.

Unreliable information poses another problem. Hersh discovered Vietnam War troops received “no meaningful instruction in the Geneva conventions or in the proper treatment of prisoners of war during training in Hawaii or in South Vietnam.” Much like the Army struggled to train the flood of Vietnam draftees, ICE scrambled to rush agents into the field, causing cutbacks in training.

That training is complicated by the lack of clarity about objectives and tactics to achieve them, which is at the root of problems with the Vietnam and ICE body counts. As the war dragged on, the question grew about how the enemy could muster increasing resistance when it supposedly lost so many soldiers. (Evil❗) Stephen Miller’s command that ICE deport a million people by the end of this year seems to be pulled from President Donald Trump’s hat and raises additional questions.

Does the administration want to remove only violent criminals or any non-citizens❓Do we deport a taxpaying business owner with a family for a decade-old speeding ticket❓ What about asylum seekers or those currently filing for admission❓ What information is used to make those arrests❓

Answering such questions demands spelling out clear rules of engagement that parallel those of other law enforcement agencies. ICE defenders constantly turn the debate toward deporting violent criminals who are here illegally. These zealots seem unconcerned if this is done in accordance with the rule of law and our values. Maybe we should ask them: “If local police behaved like ICE, would you tolerate it❓”

What if police forced citizens to carry their papers to the grocery store like ICE❓ What if police dragged a 50-year-old naturalized American from the wrong house into the snow wearing only boxer shorts like ICE thugs? What if police ignored court orders like ICE❓ What if police wore masks and said they did not need warrants like ICE❓ This may be OK in some fascist dictatorship, but not in a nation that fought a revolution against unreasonable searches and seizures.

To ensure ICE follows the rules, the country must insist on clear rules of engagement and verification that all violations are investigated and punished. This includes deliberately ignoring court orders and disregarding suspects’ constitutional rights. As Seymour Hersh would remind us, body counts can lead to atrocities like My Lai. Too many have already been shot by ICE. How many more will we lose before the country acts❓

Ralph Brauer, a retired historian who lives in Northfield, Minnesota, is the author of the recent book “The Age of Discontent.”

Vladimir Putin is a morally corrupt and failed leader of a terrorist state, He will never recover.

Ukrainians to Putin’s evil empire: Hell No!

Ukrainians say "Hello No" to Vladimir Putin!

Vladimir Putin is an evil monster!

Some things we know. One is that Ukraine has come of age. Ukrainians do not want – will not accept – being some sort of sub-unit of Greater Moscow.  Echo opinion published in MinnPost news community voices, by Dick Virden.

Dick Verdin writing for the MinnPost independent journalism in Minnesota: MinnPost is a nonprofit news organization providing high quality journalism for people who care about Minnesota.

Watching Ukrainians bravely risk life and limb for their country, I’m reminded of what I saw during assignments as a diplomat in Poland and Romania. For more than four decades after World War II, those countries – and the others of Eastern Europe – were governed mainly by Soviet puppets. I recall friends tapping their shoulders to mock the epaulettes of collaborators playing for the other side.

These were oppressed lands then. Political rights were scant, and regime claims of a socialist paradise transparent nonsense. The government had long since lost the respect of the governed, what Chinese call the mandate of the people.

Years of non-violent but widespread and creative resistance finally paid off when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. General euphoria followed, in Poland, Romania and throughout the region. Free at last. The countries of the region made the most of the opportunity by undertaking the dramatic political and economic reforms required to earn membership in the European Union and NATO.

Ukrainians want to govern themselves!  Free the Ukraine.

Today, Ukrainians, like Poles and Romanians before them, are telling us in the sharpest possible terms that they, too, want to govern themselves, not with Moscow’s “help.”

Vladimir Putin does not "get it". Unlike his Nobel Prize winning predecessor, Mikhail Gorbachev, who concluded that holding the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe against their will was detrimental not only to them but to Moscow’s own hopes for peace and prosperity.

Putin has lost his stupid gamble to take the Ukraine.  In my opinion, I cannot understand how it is that Vladimir Putin is still alive.  

In effect, Putin is bent on reversing what some called the Sinatra Doctrine, Gorbachev’s bold decision to allow the Soviet Union’s “satellite” countries the freedom to “do it their way.” 

Moreover, Putin wants to go backwards, regain an empire, restore past glory, and match or outstrip the legendary deeds of Peter the Great.

Ukrainians are not buying it. They reject Putin’s ambition and are giving their all to frustrate his plan of conquest. They’ve put the lie to his claims of popular support for his invasion, or “special military operation” as he terms it. His referenda at the barrel of a gun are as laughable as they are tragic. No fair-minded person anywhere regards such charades as a legitimate expression of citizen will.

Still, while few believe Putin’s rhetoric, neither is it clear how Russia can be dislodged from territory taken by brute force at horrendous cost. We cannot know how many acts there are to this drama, nor how it ends. Any number of scenarios are plausible; none offers an easy way out. We would do well to remember Yogi Berra’s dictum against predicting the future … “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”

Some things we do know, however. One is that Ukraine has come of age. Ukrainians do not want – will not accept – being some sort of sub-unit of Greater Moscow. Putin bet otherwise and has lost his gamble. If there were any doubts about Ukraine being a real country, they disappeared as Ukrainians held off the invading Russian Army, then pushed it back. People uncertain of their nationality and their patriotism do not achieve such feats. Ukrainians will be free.

We also know that Putin’s professed aim of driving NATO away from Russia’s borders has backfired. In response to Putin’s aggression, Sweden and Finland decided to abandon neutrality and join the alliance. They’ll still be sitting right there on Russia’s doorstep however the Ukraine war ends. This is a major strategic setback for Russia, one it brought on itself. Putin also badly miscalculated Kiev’s resolve, the strength of the West’s response, and the prowess of his own military.

Rather than prove Russia is a great power, Putin has done the opposite, displaying the weakness of its army, its political system, and its principles. This is not a country others will willingly follow or strive to emulate. Putin’s Russia is a failed state.

We can hope that someday a new, better, Russia will emerge from the ashes of this disastrous war and become, not an empire, but a responsible member of the world community. There is much such a Russia might contribute. For now, however, Putin has made it a pariah.

Ukraine, by contrast, has won the world’s admiration and support. This can hardly be the result Mr. Putin had in mind when he launched hisbotched invasion back in February. Or, as the poet Robert Burns put it, “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men…”

Dick Virden is a retired minister/counselor in the State Department Foreign Service. He is a graduate of St. John’s University and the National War College.

Thank you President Joseph Biden: Take credit for this public policy success! #COVIDRelief

What President Franklin Delano Roosevelt can teach President Joe Biden: Opinion echo published in the MinnPost nonprofit news by Professor Colette Hyman. 

Democrats will need to make sure that voters know who is responsible for the extension of unemployment insurance; the $300 per child, per month cash benefit; and the $1,400 relief check that will be making for a brighter spring, for so many.

Sometimes, the stars align and what is happening in the world mirrors what my students and I are studying in U.S. history. Such is the co-incidence of the impending passage of the American Rescue Plan, and the place of the New Deal on our syllabus. So this week we are discussing what lessons we might draw from the New Deal to understand this expansive piece of legislation, and also use knowledge of that historical moment and its consequences to speculate about what might be in store in the weeks, and months, and years to come.

Much of what the New Deal accomplished — e.g. the minimum wage and Social Security — and has become part of what Americans take for granted over the course of their lives, was wildly popular with Americans mired in the unemployment, bankruptcies, and evictions of the Great Depression. These programs helped FDR win re-election to the presidency three more times, and helped the Democratic Party maintain strong majorities in one or both houses of Congress for much of the following decades.

The success of the social safety net woven by Roosevelt and the Democratic Party was so powerful that it set the rules of engagement in domestic policymaking, for both parties, until 1980. As I like to point out to my students, the “New Deal consensus” was so irresistible that even Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican president, supported increases in the minimum wage and extensive infrastructure projects, including the beginnings of the Interstate highway system, recently renamed Dwight D. Eisenhower Interstate Highway System.

Taking credit in effective outreach

Rural electrification, protections for unions, and above all, jobs, went a long way to improving the lives of millions of people living in the United States, but the secret to the success of FDR and the Democratic Party lay in the fact that they made sure that those who benefited from those initiatives knew where they were coming from. Roosevelt himself held weekly “Fireside Chats,” each Sunday night entering the homes of the women and men who now had the means to keep a roof over their heads, and electricity to run the radio. Roosevelt was an affable character, who loved nothing more than to meet with members of the public and hear their concerns and tell them about what he was doing for them.

FDR’s outreach efforts were well matched by those of first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who had a syndicated newspaper column in which she responded to readers’ letters asking about how, for instance, to sign up for Social Security. The first couple were without doubt deeply compassionate and empathetic national leaders. At the same time, they fully understood the value of making sure that American voters understood how their lives were made better by the policies that the Roosevelt administration and a Democratic Congress adopted.

Unfortunately for the nation, President Barack Obama did not sufficiently study his U.S. history. He should have followed in the footsteps of FDR. How many Americans were aware that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a Democratic initiative, helped them get back on their feet after the collapse of the housing market and ensuing Great Recession? How much energy did he spend publicizing the accomplishments of that stimulus package or, for that matter, “Obamacare”?

Has Joe Biden learned?

What kind of student of history will Joe Biden be? For starters, he can take a page from the playbook of his predecessor, who made sure that his signature appeared on their $600 pandemic relief checks last spring. How many recipients of those checks filled in the bubble by the name of Donald J. Trump because his name was on the check that helped them through the pandemic?

Biden’s relief plan is remarkably popular among Americans, across political differences, because it addresses so much that ails the nation right now, from imminent evictions to inadequate public-school budgets to woefully lacking health care, in the midst of a pandemic. In order for Democrats to continue the work begun by the American Rescue Plan, they will need to make sure that voters know who is responsible for the extension of unemployment insurance; the $300 per child, per month cash benefit; and the $1,400 relief check that will be making for a brighter spring for so many.

If Democrats have any chance of passing a $15 minimum wage, they need to study their history and pay far more attention to bipartisan support among voters than to duplicitous partisan ideologues who, without fail, prioritize politics over people.

Dr. Colette Hyman teaches U.S. history at Winona State University.