League of Women Voters Hosts Immigration Talk in St. Cloud

ST. CLOUD -- With DACA being rescinded last week and several other changes being made on the national level to immigration policy, a St. Cloud organization stepped up to talk about the issue.

The League of Women Voters, St. Cloud Area held an immigration discussion, Wednesday at the St. Cloud Public Library. The group hosts a meeting about once a month to talk about an important issue in the St. Cloud community and typically brings in a guest speaker from an outside organization. For Wednesday's discussion, John Keller was the speaker. Keller is the executive director of the Immigration Law Center of Minnesota.

Keller gave a brief overview of President Trump's executive orders on immigration policy highlighting specifically the travel bans from January and March as well as the rescinding of the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program earlier this month.

Lolly Loomis is the President of the League of Women Voters, St. Cloud Area. She says Keller was able to show through real life examples, how new immigration policies affect the St. Cloud community.

"We get a lot of news. When he [Keller] asked, for example, how many people have heard of DACA, guess what everyone has. You get inundated from different angles and it's nice to see what's happening on the local level how is it affecting real people."

Families being split apart, parents being deported while their children have to be relocated, an unclear path toward citizenship, delays on bringing a refugee's close family members to the United States, all of these were challenges Keller brought to the group's attention. Loomis says by hosting these meetings, the league is able to provide resources for people facing specific challenges and they are always welcome to new topic ideas.

"If someone would have a topic they'd like to see brought up we absolutely would love them to bring it up, we would do the research and do what we need to do to, to get that information out."

Next month's meeting will be on opioid addiction in Minnesota.

The League of Women Voters, St. Cloud Area is made up of nearly 80 members, it's a nonpartisan political organization.