St. Croix County Board approves 3 resolutions related to refugee resettlement
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
HUDSON — A week earlier, it had been an ugly atmosphere full of shouting and raised voices that advocated for keeping refugees out of St. Croix County.
And in an effort to prevent that sort of atmosphere from developing again at a special meeting of the St. Croix County Board March 12 to consider three resolutions related to the resettlement of refugees in Eau Claire County, Bob Long, chair of the St. Croix County Board, said as the chief presiding officer of the meeting, as he is allowed to do by state law, that he was not going to accept any public comments.
The special meeting lasted for an hour and a half.
The three resolutions approved by the county board deal with a state law regarding resettlement of refugees, a federal law regarding resettlement of refugees, and a resolution to stop any refugees coming to St. Croix County, and especially any refugees being settled through the World Relief of the Chippewa Valley resettlement agency in Eau Claire.
At the regular St. Croix County Board meeting a week earlier, a representative for the Wisconsin department that deals with refugee resettlement said it was unlikely any of the refugees from Eau Claire would end up in St. Croix County, unless they already had a family member living in St. Croix County.
The three resolutions are “toothless,” so to speak, and do not carry any legal weight, although the resolutions do send a message that St. Croix County wants state and federal laws to require notification to every single municipality within a 100-mile radius of a resettlement agency, for example, and that St. Croix County does not want any refugees resettling in St. Croix County for at least two years.
Myanmar and DRC
According to the World Relief of the Chippewa Valley website, the top two countries of origin for refugees resettled to Wisconsin last year were from Burma (Myanmar) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and that the resettlement of those refugees was expected to continue this year.
All together, 75 refugees will be resettled by World Relief of the Chippewa Valley by September 30.
Warfare in eastern DRC has killed an estimated six million people since the 1990s and has uprooted another seven million people. More than 250 local and 14 foreign armed groups fight for territory, mines or other resources in DRC, according to various news reports.
Investigations by the United Nations, human rights groups and an investigative commission in DRC have reported on gold, copper, cobalt and other minerals from illegal mines being smuggled into nearby countries for sale on the global market, and that men, women and children are forced to work in the mines, according to news reports.
Cobalt, for example, is used in the batteries for smartphones and laptop computers.
Myanmar gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1948 and was then known as Burma. In February of 2021, the army seized power in a military coup and overthrew the democratically-elected government. The civilian population lives in daily fear for their lives, according to news reports.
Opposition
Since the March 5 meeting of the St. Croix County Board, Long said he has received an overwhelming number of phone calls and e-mails from St. Croix County residents who are in opposition to the resolutions.
“Those who are opposed seemed to come out of the woodwork,” he said.
Over the weekend, Long said he had talked to his daughter, who is a high school English teacher outside of Indianapolis.
His daughter has students who are refugees, and she says they are the best students. They work hard and understand and appreciate the incredible opportunity, which shows how well it can work “if it is done right,” he said.
Long said he found it disturbing that people at the March 5 St. Croix County Board meeting were handing out campaign literature and yard signs at the St. Croix County Government Center.
“That is unacceptable,” he said.
The St. Croix County Board, as are all county boards, is non-partisan.
Laughing at assault
One person at the March 5 meeting, who had a different point of view from the majority of the people who spoke and who was opposed to the resolutions, did not speak during the public comments, Long said.
As that person was leaving the building, “they were accosted physically and verbally, right here in the building,” he said.
“And what makes it worse is there were a group of people around this individual who was accosted, and do you know what their reaction was? They laughed at that abuse,” Long said, “They laughed.”
“I am disgusted. Not only is that behavior unacceptable, it is despicable. I do not know who those people were, but, if I were you, I would be incredibly embarrassed by that shameful and narrow-minded behavior. I hope —”
At that point, Long was interrupted by someone in the county board room who was shouting.
Long told the heckler it was not the time or the place for further comments.
“All I want to say is I hope that behavior is not representative of the people who were here last Tuesday, and I am certainly confident that it was not representative of the good people of St. Croix County,” he said.
“So I will share a line with you from one of my favorite songs. It’s a lyric — so it goes like this — ‘a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.’ My challenge to everyone here tonight, and to the public — don’t be that man. We need to show respect. We need to show acceptance. And we have to be able to tolerate differences of opinion so that we can come together as a community,” Long said.
“We need to take a higher ground and learn from our differences of opinion, and that will result in us being able to demonstrate character and integrity and tolerance and acceptance. So please, people. Don’t be that man. Don’t be that man. We are better than that,” he said.
The line Long quoted is from Simon and Garfunkels “The Boxer.”
The first verse of the song is, “I am just a poor boy / Though my story’s seldom told / I have squandered my resistance / For a pocketful of mumbles / Such are promises / All lies and jest /Still a man hears what he wants to hear / And disregards the rest.”
Senate Bill 916
The first resolution supported Wisconsin Senate Bill 916.
Cathy Leaf, county board supervisor, said she was opposed to the resolution because the senate bill adds another process, and that although she is in favor of communication with agencies resettling refugees in the area, there are other components of the bill that are a burden to tax dollars and is putting a process within a process.
Mark Carlson, county board supervisor, said he was in favor of the senate bill.
The process is referring to a 1980 law, and it requires the non-governmental organization or the state to send out information to all municipalities within 100 miles and then the municipalities must put the resettlement effort on as an agenda item and then the NGO or the state must come to the meeting, he said.
It will be informing people better and would be more transparent. It would allow the counties to say if they can afford it and whether they would allow it in their community, Carlson said.
Eau Claire County has 13 towns, two villages and three cities. Chippewa County has 11 villages and cities and 23 towns. Dunn County has 22 towns, seven villages and one city. St. Croix County has 21 towns, 10 villages and four cities.
Although that is not all of the towns, villages and cities within a 100 mile radius of Eau Claire, those four counties would require getting on the agenda for 117 meetings and attending 117 meetings. Most town, village and city meetings are on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, although some are on Thursday evenings. Some meetings could probably be attended by Zoom or telephone, but it would still take a while to get through 117 meetings.
Communication
Dan Hansen, county board supervisor, said there is nothing wrong with communication but federal law already requires a vehicle for communication.
The last paragraph, however, provides an injunctive vehicle toward elected officials, and it is already difficult to get people to serve in government without the threat of being the subject of legal action to make it more difficult, he said.
Hansen said he has already had people “yelling in my face” about one issue and not the well-being of the entire community.
There are several hundred municipalities within 100 miles and each will be compelled to make a Class I notice to have a meeting. That will be adding layers of government and will cause people to be susceptible to rumors instead of fact, he said.
There is “an invitation for a taxpayer to sue me because they are unhappy … and (an invitation to sue) you, and you, and you, and you,” Hansen said.
More communication is good, but a law that ends with a threat when it is already difficult to get people to serve in government is something the state Legislature should try to do better, he said.
Carlson noted that people were upset about the refugees because they viewed it as “giving stuff to illegal immigrants.”
The refugees, however, are here in this country legally, he said, “but our right to say yes or no is the issue.”
Hansen pointed out that the resettlement is funded by the federal government and that funds for resettlement are not part of the levy paid by county taxpayers.
“This raw hatred of people coming from other countries stinks,” he said.
The St. Croix County Board approved the resolution supporting Senate Bill 916 on a vote of 13 “yes” to six “no.”
CARE Act
The second resolution is in support of the Community Assent for Refugee Entry Act (CARE act), which is federal legislation proposed by Congressman Tom Tiffany (Wisconsin District 7).
Carlson said he was in support of the resolution because the CARE Act would mean resettlement agencies would “be required to ask us and we would be allowed to say no to refugees.”
Carah Koch, county board supervisor, said she was opposed to the resolution because decisions on refugee resettlement are not up to local government but are the purview of the federal government as per the United States Constitution.
This is a partisan bill, and the St. Croix County Board is a non-partisan governing body, said Greg Tellijohn, county board supervisor, who also noted that the Constitution does not give authority to local governments over the resettling of refugees.
The federal government “does not have our back,” and the St. Croix County Board is responsible to the constituents to be “the wall,” said Lisa Lind, county board supervisor.
Tellijohn noted that the majority of the constituents who had contacted him were opposed to the resolution, so by voting “no,” he would be “doing right for my constituents.”
The St. Croix County Board approved the resolution on a vote of 14 “yes” to five “no.”
No refugees
The third resolution supports a “pause” on refugees being resettled in St. Croix County.
Paul Berning, county board supervisor, talked about the issue of affordable housing, a “drug pandemic,” people struggling financially and “getting the southern border under control,” so “there is no breathing room to help others.”
Many immigrants are wonderful people, but St. Croix County “needs to be in a better place, and then we will welcome (refugees) with open arms,” he said.
Hansen said he thought the pause was to improve communication and to have a better conduit for refugees.
“I did not know it was a pause to fix the problems on the southern border, and that’s scary,” he said.
Hansen suggested adding a sunset clause after 24 months.
Sunset clause
Rick Ottino, county board supervisor, said he disagreed with placing a sunset clause on the resolution because there is “already a time limit” because a new St. Croix County Board can decide after the next election.
After a significant amount of discussion and the offering of several amendments to the resolution, the St. Croix County Board settled on placing the resolution on the agenda for the May of 2026 meeting for review.
If the resolution passes, St. Croix County has no jurisdiction over pausing, and the resettlement can continue, Leaf said.
“So we are doing all of these calisthenics for a symbolic resolution,” she said.
“Correct. Refugees could be resettled in Eau Claire tomorrow, and this resolution would not have any teeth to do anything about it. It’s a recommendation to the entities listed on the resolution,” said Heather Amos, corporation counsel.
Hansen said he asked the county administrator about the cost of drafting the resolutions and holding a special meeting on something that the federal government has a right to do.
St. Croix County spent $10,000 holding the meeting and writing the resolutions to “let everybody in this room have an emotional response to us doing this,” he said.
The sum of “$10,000 is a lot of money for what we are going,” Hansen said.
The St. Croix County Board should act on what the St. Croix County Board controls, which is the business of St. Croix County and only the business of St. Croix County, Hansen said.
The St. Croix County Board approved the resolution supporting an immediate pause on the placement of refugees within St. Croix County on a vote of 15 “yes” to four “no.”
