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Dear Neighbors,
My heart breaks that I have to write to you all following another tragedy. The killing of Renee Good at the hands of an ICE officer is bewildering. She was a mother who was stepping up to protect her community and was punished for attempting to flee when she felt threatened. There is no question that she should still be with us today.
After they committed this crime, ICE attacked Minnesotans on school property, and the Trump admin tells us not to believe our eyes as they lie to our faces. What has become of our country? Is this really who we are? Constitutional rights are being trampled under the guise of immigration enforcement and for no purpose other than to intimidate the public.
Last night I learned that ICE is using a brokered location database application that allows them to track any of our comings and goings in real-time without a warrant. The vendor that provides this tracking service to ICE is almost certainly violating Minnesota’s data privacy laws and I am working with the Attorney General’s office to stop this from happening. In the meantime, if you are attending a peaceful protest of ICE’s activities, put your phone in “Airplane Mode” before attending the event.
It is very difficult to make sense of any of this. But I do know that it is intolerable. You can get involved, you can be part of the solution. Here is a toolkit with information relating to knowing civil rights, legal assistance, emergency contacts, advocacy and community support, and numerous other resources.
Today at 4:00 PM there will be a candlelight vigil at the State Capitol, and I am planning to attend:
 Whatever action you decide to take, please stay safe, please do not resort to anger and violence, and please care for your neighbors and loved ones.
In my last update I went into great detail about the IT system shortcomings that enable large scale fraud in programs administered by the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS). Since then, the Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) released a report detailing poor oversight of a Behavioural Health grant program within DHS. This one is exasperating to me, because it exposes a basic failure to meet baseline financial management standards and has nothing to do with the IT system shortcomings that I discussed in my last bulletin.
This division of DHS had failed a similar audit several years ago and had not adequately addressed the findings from that audit. Worse, the OLA discovered evidence that its staff had backdated documents to cover up its oversight failures. To its credit, the new leadership at DHS has responded by owning the report’s findings and presenting a detailed plan to address each issue uncovered in this report, including a named person responsible for addressing each issue and a hard due date for the completion of each assigned task (This should be the norm!).
I believe deeply in the programs that DHS delivers and know that they serve to greatly improve the lives of Minnesotans across the state. It grieves me to see these shortcomings being weaponized to rationalize the wholesale de-funding of essential programs like child care and food assistance by the Trump Administration.
On Monday, I will be meeting with the leadership of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) to discuss my proposal for the reorganization of the Inspector General function in State Government and expect to be able to talk about this initiative in my next bulletin.
Keep in Touch
Don’t hesitate to reach out if I can provide any assistance. Please follow me on my Facebook page for further updates and invite your friends and family to do so as well.
Thanks for the honor of representing you at the Capitol.
Sincerely,
Steve Elkins
Representative, District 50B
Minnesota House of Representatives
[email protected]
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