By Dave Baumeister, County Correspondent
SIOUX FALLS – Although South Dakota’s most prominent “anti-immigrant politician,” Neal Tapio, was present at the Tuesday, Jan. 14, Minnehaha County Commission meeting, he did not add his voice to the five people who spoke against the resettlement of refugees in the county.
Watertown resident Tapio, who was a former state senator and ran unsuccessfully for the US House of Representatives in 2018, may be most widely known as the 2016 director of the Trump election campaign in South Dakota.
Tapio has been quoted in the media and on his Facebook page as criticizing the “crime-ridden” city of Sioux Falls and Lutheran Social Services for bringing refugees to the area.
Tuesday’s meeting would have been a perfect time for Tapio to talk about his reservations, when county commissioners considered whether or not to sign a resolution allowing more refugees into the area.
As was reported last week, due to an executive order signed in September 2019 by President Trump, before accepting any of the 18,000 refugees the US allows to come into the country, both the states and communities impacted have to sign a letter to that effect.
At the previous meeting, Betty Oldenkamp and Rebecca Hudsen of LSS in Sioux Falls told commissioners of the need for the signed document, which commission chairwoman Jean Bender then put on the agenda for Jan. 14.
The issue before the county was simple – whether or not to sign the relocation document.
Gov. Kristi Noem signed it on behalf of the state last month.
Later in the day on the 14th, the Sioux Falls City Council also voted unanimously to sign the document.
During the county meeting, the commission chambers were full, with more than 60 people in the main meeting room, and many more in an overflow room set up nearby for this event.
While almost all of the people in the main room seemed to be in support of area refugees, 20 people spoke to ask commissioners to vote “yes” on the resolution.
Several of those who spoke told their own stories, sometimes tearing up, about being forced from their home countries and becoming refugees, and how welcoming Sioux Falls had been to them.
Adding to this were voices from the Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce, Forward Sioux Falls, the AFL-CIO, among others, about the positive impact of the current refugee community on the city’s and county’s labor force.
When it came time to hear from those against the resolution, only five people spoke against it, and two of those said they were not so much against the resolution but did point out that Sioux Falls already has problems, such as the disabled veterans and homelessness, that needed to be addressed first.
One person also mentioned that the vetting process needed to be better, even though it was explained in answer to a question by Commissioner Dean Karsky, that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security already handled that as part of an 18- to 24-month process.
Minnehaha County and the City of Sioux Falls are not involved with the vetting and security clearances.
The number of refugees expected by LSS is between 60 and 100.
Oldenkamp said that 130 refugees were relocated in Sioux Falls last year, and she based the new figure on the fact that President Trump had reduced the total number allowed into the country by 40 percent.
Although Tapio himself avoided the podium, one of the three others against specifically referred to Tapio, and another read from “talking points” that had been circulating citing anti-refugee “statistics.”
(Tapio did speak at the City Council meeting later that evening, and he referred to some of those same “talking-points.”)
After the public comment, all five commissioners weighed in on the reasons why they planned to vote for it.
“I am not going to be a voice against (welcoming people),” Karsky said. “If we go back far enough, all of us came from that situation.”
Commissioner Gerald Beninga added, “I enjoy the culture they bring. I am going to support this because it is the right thing to do.
“The vetting process is extraordinary, and (the refugees) create benefits for our economy.”
Even though the commission might have to go through the same process next year, Commissioner Cindy Heiberger said she believed the conversation held at this meeting was good to have.
“We need to be speaking to each other,” she said. “If there is a fear, we need to be talking.”
Then she mentioned the state’s European immigrant heritage.
“There are still people in South Dakota who only speak German.”
However, on Wednesday, Jan 15, it became questionable as to whether this would be discussed next year when U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte of Maryland temporarily halted this presidential executive order.
Still, in Minnehaha County, commissioners looked at the conversation as good to have.
One of the “talking-points” had been to mention an “increase in crime,” but in reference to that Bender said that she had talked to both human services and law enforcement, who said that there was no disproportional need of their services among the refugee population in the county.
“Any time you try to categorize a group with one broad stroke, you miss the whole picture,” she said.
But Commissioner Jeff Barth put it simply, “It’s easy to hate people. Let’s not hate each other. Let proponents not hate opponents, and let opponents not use this for political ends.
“(At the beginning of the meeting), we said the Pledge of Allegiance – ‘with liberty and justice for all’ – for all. I’m going to support this because it is the American thing to do.”
On a motion from Beninga, and a second by Karsky, the resolution to allow refugee resettlement in Minnehaha County passed unanimously.
Following the vote, the room erupted in spontaneous applause.
The Minnehaha Commission has its regular meetings each Tuesday at 9 a.m. on the second floor of the county administration building at 6th and Minnesota in Sioux Falls.
These meetings are open to all, and public comment is always encouraged.
