Keith Ellison hosts Democratic attorneys general to hear Minnesotans’ concerns over Trump changes

Suzanne Kelly couldn’t stay for the duration of a forum in St. Paul on federal funding cuts Thursday night. She left to attend a farewell party for her former employees who used to help assist refugees.

Because of federal cuts to refugee resettlement programs, Kelly said, she has had to let go more than two dozen employees.

“This is about people’s lives, people who have come here fleeing refugee camp, fleeing war,” said Kelly, chief executive of the Minnesota Council of Churches.

Kelly’s remarks came at a forum at North Senior High School in North St. Paul hosted by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and attorneys general from Arizona, Illinois, New Jersey and New York. The attorneys general – all Democrats – told the crowd their stories help inform their work “upholding the rule of law” against the administration of President Donald Trump, which they argue has attacked the judicial system and essential services.

“These cuts, these changes are hurting people,” Ellison said, “and it’s not really a partisan exercise.”

The five attorneys general have filed numerous lawsuits against the administration, saying it has unlawfully frozen federal funds, laid off workers and dismantled agencies.“

I think we are very much one of the most important lines of defense against this unconstitutional behavior by Donald Trump and Elon Musk,” said Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes.

The Trump administration has laid off employees to “restore accountability to the American public” and initiate a “critical transformation of the federal bureaucracy,” according to an executive order the president signed in February. His administration has justified sweeping cuts to agencies as necessary to reduce the size of the federal government and rid it of waste and fraud.

“We’re cutting down government,” Trump said ahead of a cabinet meeting in February. “We’re cutting down the size of government. We have to. We’re bloated. We’re sloppy. We have a lot of people that aren’t doing their job. We have a lot of people that don’t exist.”

Thursday’s event came shortly after news that Trump had signed an executive order to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. The five attorneys general – along with their counterparts in more than a dozen other states – sued the Trump administration earlier this month over layoffs at the department they argued were tantamount to dismantling the agency.

While the bulk of education funds for K-12 schools across the country comes from state and local sources, the Department of Education helps pay for low-income students and special education. It also administers loans and grants for college students and investigates claims of discrimination.

The case argues Trump can’t dismantle the Department of Education as it’s an agency created by Congress.

“On Jan. 20, we inaugurated a president,” said Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul. “We did not coronate a king that can disregard the checks and balances that are laid out in our constitution.”

Concerned about everything from immigration enforcement to gun violence and the cuts to scientific research, hundreds of attendees filled the high school’s auditorium for a raucous two-hour meeting colored by deep frustration with the Trump administration’s first two months in office.

Kelly said her organization will lose $4 million in funding and has been forced to leave refugees stranded in camps overseas. The employees who lost their jobs, Kelly said, are largely refugees themselves. She asked attendees, “whatever your faith tradition,” to pray.

Fired federal workers said they were driven to mental health crises and were dipping into emergency funds to survive.

Maricruz Lozano Rios said her mother’s partner was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement. Within two weeks, he was transferred to a detention facility in Louisiana and sent back to his country of origin.

Lozano Rios said she has not stopped thinking of what would have happened if her mother was with him and detained too.

“More than ever, we have to come together and organize,” Lozano Rios said, “because I’ll be damned if they keep hurting my family.”

Ellison and fellow attorneys general encouraged fired federal workers to contact their offices if they had not been rehired, noting that a federal judge ordered the Trump administration reinstate probationary workers.

“They’re not just speak-outs,” Ellison said of the town halls he and fellow attorneys general are hosting. “We’re actually gathering the evidence for you.”