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Minnesota Welcomes Afghan Refugees

Minnesota has room for RV execs and Afghan refugees:

Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, letter to President Joe Biden, 2021.08.19, as tweeted by Twin Cities reporter Torey Van Oot.
Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, letter to President Joe Biden, 2021.08.19, as tweeted by Twin Cities reporter Torey Van Oot.

Minnesotans believe in treating all people with respect and dignity, and we have a strong tradition of welcoming those who seek refuge and supporting them to rebuild their lives and become part of our communities. Minnesota is eager to uphold that tradition by welcoming families and children and providing the stable foundation they need to rebuild their lives, achieve their highest potential, and contribute to our state.

You may already be aware that in the past Minnesota has stepped forward to help those who are fleeing desperate situations and need a safe place to call home. New Minnesotans strengthen our communities and contribute to the social fabric of our state. They are our neighbors [Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, letter to President Joe Biden, 2021.08.19, as reported by KSTP-TV].

Treating all people with respect and dignity… welcoming families and children… newcomers strengthen the social fabric of our state—wow! That sure sounds a lot more sensible, patriotic, and true than the fearmongering South Dakota gets from its governor.

Related Humanity: Mormons evidently take their patriotism and Christianity more seriously than South Dakotans. Utah Governor Spencer Cox has also written to the White House saying its doors are open to refugees from Afghanistan:

Gov. Spencer Cox, tweet showing letter to President Biden, 2021.08.17.
Gov. Spencer Cox, tweet showing letter to President Biden, 2021.08.17.

28 Comments

  1. Jake

    This has to be ‘run by’ Lewandowski and Ian Fury before Noem will comment..

    Mebbe she would welcome them with open arms and gifts if they were riding Harleys or palomino horses with (especially important here) $!00 bills coming out of their robes and turbans!

  2. Hank

    Employers in South Dakota are begging for workers, we need to welcome these folks and as many others as we can get to fill our jobs, our schools, our towns and our souls. I used to think that seeing someone else do well was in the fabric of most humans are made from, but recent years have made me doubt that thinking. But I still do believe that helping others is as important to a person’s wellbeing as being able to help oneself.

  3. Kent Frerichs

    I believe I read that the Republican Governor of Iowa indicated that she would welcome Afghan Refugees.

  4. Porter Lansing

    Way to go, Tiny-Sota :) Proud to share America with you.

    – In less than 24 hours, Coloradans raised more than $100,000 to help Afghan refugees as part of a new fundraiser launched by 9News.
    -The donations quickly surpassed the $75,000 goal.

  5. Porter Lansing

    In CO we view refugees, immigrants, and all New Americans as future contributors to our culture not as future workers.

    In short, it’s about what we get from their experiences not what they give to our work force.

    The more they receive from us, at first, the more will choose to remain in Colorado.

  6. Hank

    That is a good point Porter! That is a much better way to look at it.

  7. They can have all of ours.

    It’s time to cut the crap.

  8. No, I don’t mean people from Afghanistan are crap. I mean it’s time to cut the crap about this:

    “The goal is to use Afghanistan to wash money out of the tax bases of the US and Europe through Afghanistan and back into the hands of a transnational security elite. The goal is an endless war, not a successful war.” — Julian Assange

    He’s correct. What’s happening there is a side show as the Arizona Senate today is expected to see the election audit results.

    In jokes and in politics, timing is everything.

  9. Richard Schriever

    John Dale – you’ve got that wrong. The AZ senate has been told by a judge they MUST release the results of the audit. They’ve already seen it and don’t want to release it.

    The SD climate is not too different to Northern/Western Afghanistan. Would feel right at home here, aside from the lack of mountains.

  10. Porter Lansing

    MyPillow’s CEO is reportedly hiding Colorado’s Mesa County elections clerk Tina Peters while the FBI investigates the security breach she allegedly facilitated to leak highly sensitive election data. – DenverPost

  11. cibvet

    In SD it appears you have to pay to get in and if you are non-white you must leave the money in SD and then you are asked to leave.

  12. Well since Hyde County is shrinking at a rate that is untenable. Maybe Highmore could take in a few? Ree Heights would be more Afghanistan but it’s in Hand.

  13. Arlo Blundt

    Well…we shouldn’t be too harsh on the “Land of Infinite Variety”‘s immigration policy…the Noem administration is more than willing to welcome desperate Swedish and Norwegian refugees fleeing the socialist hell of Scandanavia.

  14. Francis Schaffer

    If South Dakota were welcoming of refugees, maybe Winnebago would have moved here.

  15. John

    The US created a moral dilemma and necessity in conjunction with the fall of and post-Vietnam.
    Over 90% of the Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians left those nations after the communist victory.
    Over 1.4 million refugees eventually achieved resettlement. The US hosted over 1 million. This exodus was one of the worlds largest migrations in the 20th century. Vietnamese resettlement received ardent support from 4 presidents and political opponents from both parties. It was a moral necessity.
    Similarly today the US has a moral necessity assisting and fostering immigration and to welcome refugees from Afghanistan.
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/08/16/afghanistan-falls-us-confronts-moral-necessity-it-faced-before/
    Amanda Demmer wrote of post-Vietnam refugee and makes the case.

    Remember Jesus words, “Call me when you’re an American”.

  16. Nick Nemec

    90% of the population of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos didn’t leave those countries after the communist victory. Many did, but it wasn’t 90%.

  17. mike from iowa

    I don’t like the idea of putting refugees in Highmore, in harm’s way, just in case the distracted man killer Ravnsborg drives through again.

  18. Nick Nemec

    Refugees will do better if they can settle where they wish, this might mean some place where there is a critical mass of their countrymen to establish a community. By the third and forth generation they will be largly integrated into American society.

  19. Sam@2

    I notice Biden and Harris are nt sending any refugees to California and Delaware? Biden sending the problem he created to others.

  20. mike from iowa

    California welcomes Afghanis and Delaware is mobilizing jobs, housing, healthcare for expected arrivals. What are you doing to help, besides griping, Sam@2.

  21. Sam, on what information do you base your claim? Your statement appears to be false. California has been taking refugees from Afghanistan for years. The International Rescue Committee has resettled more than 16,000 refugees from Afghanistan since 2006, more than half of them in California. Califronai’s governor welcomes more refugees; South Dakota’s does not. Jewish Family Services brought an Afghan who helped our military to Delaware in 2017 and is working with its Governor and Congressional delegation to prepare to accept more Afghans now.

  22. jerry

    Sam@2 is full of 2. https://www.ctpublic.org/news/2021-08-19/afghan-refugees-arrive-in-connecticut-as-resettlement-agency-calls-for-state-assistance Late on Monday night, two cars filled with luggage and seven tired travelers pulled up in front of the New Haven headquarters of Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, or IRIS.

    Under the dim lights of a nearby gas station, the travelers stepped out of the cars in groups. First, a petite woman with two small boys. As the youngest boy embraced his mother, the other stood behind her checkered dress carrying a large laptop bag. Out of the second car emerged the woman’s husband and their two older children. All exhausted after more than 30 hours of travel from Kabul, Afghanistan, to Qatar to the U.S.

    On Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom told Afghan refugees that they are welcome in the state, describing California as a “state of refuge.” https://c-vine.com/blog/ca-gov-newsom-welcomes-afghan-refugees-were-a-state-of-refuge/

  23. jerry

    Delaware has been a haven for Afghan’s for some time now, as it is currently. South Dakota seems like the only place that doesn’t welcome military heroes.

    “Sadiq was an interpreter for the U.S. military in Afghanistan. That job made him a target and the subject of death threats from the Taliban. So, in 2017, he received a Special Immigrant Visa that allowed him to escape to safety in America, where he was resettled in Delaware.”
    https://whyy.org/articles/delaware-group-prepares-to-help-more-afghan-refugees/

  24. Lottie

    Can you imagine KN being nice to Afghans, she dont even like indians.

  25. jerry

    The most amazing failure of the US, in the evacuation of our Afghan heroes, is it’s success.

  26. jerry

    Airbnb steps up for the Afghan heroes. “Airbnb and its charitable arm, Airbnb.org, said on Tuesday that the company intended to provide free temporary housing globally for 20,000 refugees fleeing the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.

    As American and European governments race to evacuate tens of thousands of people, the property rental company called the displacement and resettlement of refugees a “significant humanitarian crisis.” New York Times 8,24,21

    How about that, a private company that understands that these Afghans gave it all for the US, more so than the likes of the anti-American NOem.

  27. jerry

    87,900 Afghan heroes have been evacuated so far in Biden’s successful extractions. Booyah!

  28. mike from iowa

    From yer Wonkette…. Erik Prince, the American defense contractor, said he is offering people seats on a chartered plane out of Kabul for $6,500 per person. U.S. and NATO forces are sending special rescue teams into Taliban-controlled areas of the city to spirit their citizens into the airport. And countless Afghans who thought the U.S. would protect them after having assisted the U.S.-led coalition forces in the past two decades are now realizing that they will most likely be left behind, to face Taliban wrath alone.

    Might just as well profit some more from the biggest military blunder magats ever got us into in history. It has been reported many chartered jets leave Afghanistan with hundreds of empty seats. Maybe Noem and Trigger can commandeer Grand Canyon pack mules and she could rescue white Americanos from Taliban clutches and become a heroine.

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