ICE not relevant to ‘Somali issue’

Michael Barone’s Jan. 18 column does a nice job explaining how Minnesota culture made the state vulnerable to the fraud on the Feeding Our Future program allegedly committed by members of the Somali community. However, his conclusion that state and city efforts to block ICE’s efforts to enforce the law in this regard are illegal if not “felonious” due to the supremacy clause is dead wrong.

The supremacy clause does not apply where a federal agency exceeds its statutory authority. Because over 90% of Minnesota’s Somali population are citizens, with a majority of the rest holding “green cards,” the matter is not one pertaining to immigration enforcement and ICE has no jurisdiction over the matter. It would be like the TSA issuing speeding tickets on the Eisenhower. Expressway.

The “Somali issue” may be the scourge of Minnesota society, but any attempt to address it by ICE is not a lawful exercise of federal authority and state and local agencies are well within their rights to challenge it.

David Bressler

Campton Hills