We need action.”

Jacob Borealis, a Lakeville resident

In a special session last Tuesday, the Dakota County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted 5-0 to send a letter detailing the impact of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within Dakota County to President Donald Trump, Gov. Tim Walz, and members of Minnesota’s Congressional Delegation.
Commissioners Joe Atkins and Liz Workman were absent from the special meeting.
The letter speaks to the impact of ICE officers on the county workforce and operations, from the increased demand on public safety to workforce disruptions.
County staff drafted the letter after an informational meeting last week where county department heads including Dakota County Attorney Kathy Keena and Sheriff Joe Leko discussed disruptions to their departments from increased calls to the sheriff’s office to lack of cooperation on cases.
“These are major disruptions in our operations. They are not minor,” said Board Chair Laurie Halverson.
Both Keena and Leko read and supported the letter before it was sent before the board.
“Federal enforcement activity is directly affecting how we deliver services and fulfil our statutory responsibilities,” according to the letter. Affected services include county employees, especially case workers, being followed and stopped by ICE officers, county contractors delaying or derailing projects including concerns from international contractors who are expected to complete work on the Lake Byllesby Dam this year.
Many regularly scheduled county programs across parks and libraries have been cancelled in recent weeks due to increased ICE activity. Programming in the Dakota County Western Service Center in particular has been affected as ICE officers have been regularly seen in the parking lot, stopping those coming in and out of the building, according to Tom Novak, director of Dakota County Public Services and Revenue Division.
“We’ve had a number of cancellations of reservations for programs, but this is the stated reason for the cancellation: that they are uncomfortable coming to our sites,” said Georg Fischer, Dakota County Director of Physical Development Division at the impact meeting last week.
The commissioners were hesitant to call for anything other than increased communication and coordination from the federal government at the special meeting.
The letter ends calling for “improved communication and coordination regarding federal operations in Dakota County so that local governments can maintain public safety, plan appropriately, protect continuity of essential operations and ensure services remain accessible and effective for all residents.”
Chair Halverson and Commissioner Mary Hamann-Roland spoke to adding stronger language to the letter, outright asking the federal government to end Operation Metro Surge.
“Immigration enforcement is something we’ve had in partnership with our Dakota County Sheriff’s Office for years and it’s gone […] that surge is not what we have done with our partners, when our federal governments were truly our partners. Right now, it feels like we are being done to instead of being a partner,” said Hamann-Roland.
Commissioners Bill Droste, Mike Slavick, and Mary Liz Holberg were skeptical of the change.
Holberg expressed uncertainty if the county as a whole is “in support of getting ICE out of Minnesota,” continuing “I don’t think that’s the answer.”
Slavick and Droste spoke to discomfort in changing the letter while the full board wasn’t present.

Public comment
Public comment at the special meeting last Tuesday was largely skeptical of the letter, with all six speakers calling for further action from the board including asking for the end of Operation Metro Surge as well as other options taken by nearby counties, like forbidding ICE from using county properties as staging areas.
“We need action,” said Jacob Borealis, a Lakeville resident who spoke at the meeting.
Ken Behringer, former director of the Dakota County Library system, compared the commissioner’s letter to the letter released last week by 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies which called for “an immediate deescalation of tensions and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions.”
“It didn’t play well. Please don’t fall into that trap,” said Behringer.
“We’ve waited quite a long time to take a stand with two people dead,” said Judy Finger, an Apple Valley resident, continuing, “This isn’t the country I grew up in.”
“We’re just going to articulate it and not call for action from the federal government that is costing the taxpayers in Dakota County a lot of money. I think that would be an oversight,” said Mark Legvold, a Greenvale Township resident and current candidate for Minnesota Senate District 58.
In the end, the board moved forward with the letter as written seeking improved communication and coordination.
Board members encouraged residents to come to future board meetings to provide comment. The next regularly scheduled Board of Commissioners meeting is at 9 a.m. Feb. 17. in the Dakota County Administrative Building.