It is a good campaign message, but in reality will get MN no where.
How quickly people forget that in the last few years three other Republican governors made a big show out of withdrawing their states from the federal program (Texas, Kansas, New Jersey) and of course they still get refugees with Texas presently being the top ‘welcoming’ state in the nation.
As they did with those states, the US State Department will simply turn the whole resettlement plan for the state over to a non-profit (contractor) group to manage. (The Tennessee case is on appeal and if by a miracle, TN wins, then that strategy could go up in flames for the feds.)
Don’t get me wrong, there are political considerations for Mr. Johnson as he is up against former governor Tim Pawlenty in the primary, it is definitely worth discussing in the campaign. And, as governor there will be many things the state government could do to rein-in the program by reforming the state’s welfare system, etc.
Indeed, Pawlenty was a Republican establishment governor of the state during the expansion of refugee resettlement to St. Cloud and must have known what was happening. I would say look to his campaign donors and see if he was being funded by big business (poultry!) interests looking for a steady supply of cheap labor to the St. Cloud area. I presume Mr. Johnson has some good investigators at work to discover Pawlenty’s ties to the program while he was governor. LOL! Any photos of Pawlenty snuggling with the Lutheran resettlement people?
