Earlier this month, Cory Zurowski asked at the City Pages, Does dad and undocumented Jennie-O worker Melvin Siu look like a threat to you? Zurowski reports:
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials arrested Siu at the Jennie-O facility last week. According news reports, there's been a standing deportation order out for him for 16 years. Siu, who Rivera says has no criminal record, is currently in custody at the Sherburne County Jail. When federal authorities plan on deporting Siu is unknown.
ICE officials in Washington, D.C. could not be reached for immediate comment.
Different people have visited Siu in jail. He insists he'll be murdered if he returns to his homeland, which in recent years has been plagued by political instability and narco turf wars. According to Rivera, Siu's fears are based on the fact that another person from his hometown was recently deported from Illinois to Guatemala and was murdered on the day of his arrival. . . .
In a town hall-style forum on Saturday in Willmar, a constituent asked state senator Andrew Land, R-Olivia, and state representative Dave Baker, R-Willmar, expressed sympathy for Siu and interest in immigration reform, West Central Tribune staff writer Linda Vanderwerf reports in Legislators field health care questions at Saturday forum in Willmar:
Immigration came up when a man asked if the legislators could do anything to support Melvin Siu, an undocumented immigrant who was arrested in Willmar a few weeks ago.
Siu has children who are U.S. citizens and has said he fears for his life if returned to his native Guatemala. He reportedly has no criminal record and has been a member of the Willmar community for a decade.
Immigration is a federal issue, Baker said, but he said he wanted to learn more about the situation and may be able to make calls or write a letter of support. "There's no easy answer," he said. "We've got to find a way to make these people legal."
Lang said the process of gaining legal residents is long, difficult and expensive. He, too, said it would be good to find a way to help someone who was a productive member of the community.
That might not sit well with some state legislators in the Republican house and senate caucuses. We're happy to see Greater Minnesota leaders from any party defy conventional wisdom that all rural white folks are both hateful and boneheads about unauthorized workers.
Senate District 17 is considered a swing district.
Photo: State Senator Andrew Lang, left, and state representative Dave Baker at the town forum. Photo via West Central Tribune.
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