Perusing the letters to the editor of the Albert Lea Tribune, we came across Paul Westrum's Letter: Organization to host meeting:
The Albert Lea chapter of Minnesota Coalition for Immigration Reduction invites you to its next meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Albert Lea American Legion at 142 N. Broadway Ave. in Albert Lea.
Ron Branser will be the speaker. He’s from Eden Valley. He is a nationally known speaker. At the end of his speech, he will open the floor for a 30-minute Q&A period. Please share this info with your friends. Hope to see you there!
Paul Westrum
Albert Lea
Bluestem suspects that "Ron Branser" is "Ron Branstner," who is certainly nationally know since Zoe Chace at This American Life profiled the anti-immigrant, anti-refugee, anti-Muslim speaker.
However, Branstner's appearance at a Minnesota Coalition for Immigration Reduction meeting is pretty much old hat. In September 2007, Karen Colbenson reported for the Post Bulletin in Anger flares at ‘immigration reduction’ meeting:
Passionate voices rang out against illegal immigration Monday night when a group of local residents met to discuss their opinions and concerns with guest speaker Ron Branstner, a minuteman from California.
The community meeting was sponsored by the Minnesota Coalition for Immigration Reduction group.
Branstner, who is originally from Minnesota, shared his experiences as a border watcher and what inspired him to become one. . . .
Paul Westrum, a resident of Albert Lea and the founder of MCFIR, said the purpose of the meeting was to work on the immigration issue, which he said is not a racial issue but a legal one.
“I’m not here to bellyache," said Westrum. “I’m here to tell what’s going on. If you don’t like what is going on like I don’t, then let’s do something about it. We have to fight together or we won’t win on this issue." . . .
At one point while Branstner was listing the countries that illegal immigrants come from, he was corrected by Liliana Silvestry, executive director of Austin’s Welcome Center, when he mentioned Somalia.
“Excuse me," said Silvestry. “You cannot include Somalia. They are refugees."
Branstner admitted his mistake and asked Silvestry to stand up and answer some questions about the Welcome Center.
Since then, Branstner has shifted the focus of his talks to anti-refugee and anti-Muslim rants. While the Minneapolis Star Tribune in 2016 opened Anti-Muslim speaking circuit runs through rural Minnesota with Branstner, he cut his teeth in the anti-immigrant circuit in the first decade of the 21st century.
The Minnesota Coalition for Immigration Reduction? It's first goal is to reduce legal immigration to 200,000. It's not simply unauthorized immigration that gives Westrum the fantods. We noted in our 2013 post, Is the Minnesota Coalition for Immigration Reduction fading away in rural areas?:
When Bluestem first started publishing, organized anti-immigrant activity ran high, with Minutemen giving talks and Minnesotans Seeking Immigration Reform (MinnSIR) rallying up to near one hundred people and Neo-Nazis using the issue in an attempt to recruit members.
But things have quiet since the fall of 2010.
We had wondered if plans by the Senate and President Obama to work on comprehensive immigration reform would bring the nativists out of retirement, but there's been little in the papers. No meetings, no speakers, no rallies.
In one of the few local-angle articles about the issue in Greater Minnesota news media, Owatonna, Faribault residents weigh in on immigration reform efforts, the Owatonna People's Press talked to leaders in the Albert Lea-based Minnesota Coalition for Immigration Reduction:
But not everyone in the region agrees that the proposed path to citizenship for undocumented aliens is desirable.
“We feel the only way to take care of people who are here illegally is to send them home,” said Paul Westrum, founder of the Albert Lea-based Minnesota Coalition for Immigration Reduction. “Tell them they have so many days to go home and if you don’t, we [the U.S. government] will send you, and you will have to pay for it.”
Westrum’s organization has members in 32 cities across southern Minnesota, including Owatonna. He says the growth of the coalition is due, in large part, to citizens’ concern over the money spent on those who are here illegally. . . .
Well, maybe not. The article continues:
Marlene Nelson of Owatonna was a part of the local chapter for seven years, though she said Tuesday that the Owatonna chapter has not been active for the past five years. Still, her feelings have not changed on the subject.
The Owatonna chapter was one of the most visible chapters, although the location of the 32 cities has never been revealed.
Since then, the anti-immigrant folks have shifted to hating Somali refugees. In 2008, we looked at the group in two posts, Backgrounder: the immigration reduction movement's attempts to hijack environmentalism and On the legal status of Minnesota's immigration reduction groups (and why it might matter).
Photo: Ron Branstner in Austin, circa 2007-2008. Read our 2014 review of his pre-anti-refugee speaking career here.
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