Minneapolis Star Tribune, Aug. 10
Yet another attack on nation’s immigrants
Trump rule would more strictly target use of public benefits.
Legal immigrants may need a helping hand to start a new life. That’s not a handout. It’s an investment.
Many legal immigrants to this country have already run a gauntlet just getting here.
Many start out at the bottom, taking low-paid jobs as they slowly re-establish themselves in a new land. Like the generations of immigrants before them, they sometimes require a little help. In the past, the U.S. has taken a fairly generous view of that situation. There is a long-standing rule that immigrants cannot become “public charges” who will wind up living off the largesse of taxpayers. Those labeled as such can be denied entry or, if already here, turned down for permanent residency, which closes off citizenship.
That has been a good and rarely applied rule, affecting perhaps 3 percent of legal noncitizens. Now that may change dramatically, with cruel consequences for the immigrants, this state and the country. In its zeal to limit migration of all kinds to the U.S., the Trump administration would apply a far stricter interpretation of the public-charge rule, taking in almost all types of government assistance not just for the immigrant but for their immediate families.
The Migration Policy Institute projects that 47 percent of legal noncitizens could risk being labeled public charges simply for obtaining housing assistance, help paying winter heating bills, nutritional aid for pregnant women - even for filing for the Earned Income Tax Credit. In a particularly inhumane stroke, legal immigrants who qualify for subsidies to help purchase health care would have a strike against them for actually doing so.
This is a shortsighted and cruel policy change. The majority of legal immigrants come to this country to work. The green card, which establishes permanent residency, is vital to building a stable new life. Without it, work in the U.S. can become problematic, dependent on specific visas and employer petitions. Those who get sick will simply add to the rolls of uncompensated care.
The rule change, which does not need to go through Congress, has not yet been published in the federal register for public review. But it has already started to spread fear among those who followed the law to come to Minnesota. Public health nurses are already seeing families who want to pull their U.S.-born children out of health care and nutrition programs, worried that their participation could lead to a negative review, said John Keller, of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota.
For the more practical-minded, we note that while legal immigrants may need a little help as they settle in, they offer a solid return on investment. Immigrants make up 1 in 10 workers in Minnesota, helping to fill an acute labor shortage. Many are better educated and contribute more than you might imagine.
According to the American Immigration Council, immigrant-led households in Minnesota pay at least $2.2 billion in federal taxes and more than $1 billion in state and local taxes. Their spending adds $9 billion to the economy. The stores and businesses they start add half a billion dollars. More than half have some college, and a third have their college degree.
As immigrants move up the economic ladder, this state - and this country - greatly benefit from their presence.
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St. Paul Pioneer Press, Aug. 9
Respect for human life and transparent government
In addressing the fatal shooting of Billy Hughes in a confrontation with St. Paul Police officers this week, Mayor Melvin Carter and Chief of Police Todd Axtell have said things that bear repeating because they speak to a regard for human life and represent significant progress toward transparency in government.
Each has promised thorough investigation and timely release of information regarding the shooting and its circumstances. Each has stood up for balancing the integrity of the investigation with the public’s need to know what happened.
Carter’s initial statement on Sunday was humane and measured: “Last night’s officer-involved shooting was a tragedy for our entire city. As we await further details, my heart goes out to the family of the deceased, to our St. Paul officers, and to every member of our community as we all grieve and process this loss.”
Axtell on Tuesday said, “Sunday’s officer-involved shooting is a tragedy for us all. The family of Mr. Hughes has lost their loved one. Two officers have had their lives changed in ways that can never be understood by most.”
And, “An officer-involved shooting leaves an indelible bruise on our collective soul, for which truth is the only relief. … I also know that the only path to truth is through a thorough, unadulterated investigation by highly trained professionals.”
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is the investigating agency, and the investigation is proceeding apace. Axtell and Carter said they expect video from the officers’ body-worn cameras to be released within 10 days or so.
The promise of a thorough, timely investigation and the information it yields, including the footage from body-worn cameras, is significant in direct and indirect ways. Directly, it means we’ll know much more soon, including what the investigation looks like and what it found. Indirectly, it deters posturing and postulating, because facts are at hand. The more we can have confidence in the investigation and its tools - and confidence that the public will have a chance to judge for itself - the less need there is for conjecture.
As Carter and Axtell and others have said, the BCA’s probe won’t answer every question, nor settle every doubt. But thoroughness and transparency, in lesser matters as well as these of life and death, are cardinal virtues regardless. They don’t come easy.
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Post Bulletin, Aug. 11
First impressions matter for new Mayo CEO
Dr. John Noseworthy said Friday that Mayo employees may not even notice the transition to the clinic’s new CEO, Dr. Gianrico Farrugia, early next year.
That’s admirably modest, but not likely - for Mayo employees, the Rochester community and the world of health care.
Noseworthy has been a national health care leader since the early days of the Affordable Care Act, he’s overseen Mayo’s regional growth, with all the bumps and bruises that has entailed, and most important for Rochester, he presided over the birth of Destination Medical Center, which promises nearly $6 billion in new private and public investment through about 2035 or 2040.
Some of you and some of us likely won’t be here in 2040 to see how it turns out. But the financial, planning and political power unleashed by Mayo, its public partners - state, county and city - and private investors will make Rochester a vastly different place years from now.
Noseworthy was the plan’s champion in 2013 at the state Capitol, and while others have been more visible since then - Tina Smith, Lisa Clarke and R.T. Rybak, for starters - it was the Mayo CEO who best explained it at the time and whose personal legacy depends on DMC achieving its goals without steamrollering the city in the process.
Beginning early next year, that’s Dr. Farrugia’s challenge. Though he’s been in the Mayo system for 30 years and has led Mayo Florida through its own mini-DMC since 2015, he’ll have a steep learning curve, at a time when Rochester citizens, more than ever, want their voices heard about DMC.
Noseworthy has wanted Mayo to be a “thought leader,” helping to “transform health care both for our local regions such as Minnesota but also across the country and the world,” as he told MPR News Friday. For a quiet, cerebral neurologist by training, he was profoundly ambitious for the clinic as an international innovator.
Will the clinic remain that ambitious with Farrugia in charge, or will he and the Board of Trustees pay more attention to local and regional business? With the Florida and Arizona campuses, that may not seem like an option, but leading Mayo all comes down to communication, Noseworthy told MPR News.
His advice to Farrugia is to “communicate, communicate, communicate, and let people understand where they fit and how they have a role in this.”
We might flip that around. It’s not just a matter of “letting” people understand where they fit. It’s involving people - employees and community members - as much as possible in the planning and decision-making. Whether it’s a grand experiment such as DMC or a less eye-popping but important decision about inpatient hospital beds in Albert Lea, people don’t want to be communicated with after the fact. They want to be truly involved. Then communicate, communicate, communicate.
Mayo’s tens of thousands of employees and the millions of patients they serve each year are counting on Farrugia and team to get it right and carry on the clinic’s world-class care and mission, which have been well-served by John Noseworthy.
Our advice to the new CEO: Take advantage of Noseworthy being around for a while, get in the car, drive around the city and region, and meet people - not just employees. Listen to them. Get to know them, and let them get to know what makes you tick. First impressions matter. You can do yourself and Mayo a lot of good by caring enough to get acquainted.
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