BELTRAMI COUNTY, Minn. — According to Beltrami County Commissioners Reed Olson and Craig Gaasvig, Beltrami County has voted to disallow refugee resettlement by a 3-2 board vote.
Commissioner Olson says this makes the county the first in the state - and possibly one of the first in the country - to pass such a motion.
A crowd of around 200 to 300 people were in attendance - most in favor of the motion passing, according to both commissioners.
Commissioner Olson considers the vote "a black eye on the community," while Commissioner Gaasvig cites the city's strapped financial circumstances as a rationale for what motivated the vote.
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The vote runs contrast to a move by the Walz administration to continue consenting to refugee resettlement at the state level after a recent presidential executive order required consent from states and counties.
"The inn is not full in Minnesota," said the governor back in December 2019 in a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Trump's order had originally stated that the administration was respecting communities that can't take in refugees.
The Trump Administration had originally stated its aim to reduce the number of refugees the U.S. would accept from 30,000 in 2019 to 18,000 in 2020.
