Readers Write: SAVE Act, language, immigration

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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Want to vote? Have your birth certificate on hand? If not, good luck. If you’re a married woman who changed your name, even better luck.

In an alarming — yet not surprising — move, Minnesota Republican Reps. Tom Emmer, Pete Stauber, Brad Finstad and Michelle Fischbach have thrown their support behind the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. This legislation ostensibly aims to prevent noncitizens from voting in federal elections. However, it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and there is scant evidence to suggest that this is a widespread problem.

The SAVE Act, therefore, appears to be a solution in search of a problem — or is it? Disenfranchising eligible voters and undermining the integrity of our democratic process is the goal of the current legislative and executive administration.

I urge you to review the SAVE Act for details that can affect your ability to vote, especially the 79% of married American women who took their husband’s last name. The SAVE Act requires individuals to provide, in person, documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote. For most Americans, this would be a passport or original birth certificate. Your birth certificate must match your voter registration requirements; marriage licenses or other proof of name change are not listed in the bill as sufficient to support any discrepancies.

Moreover, the SAVE Act’s requirement for in-person documentation effectively eliminates the convenience of mail-in registration, which has been a lifeline for many voters. Even things like a simple address change could be significantly impacted, and this bill would virtually eliminate voter registration drives. This change would disproportionately impact those who cannot easily take time off work, those with disabilities and those living in rural areas.

You already have the right to vote under the Constitution. So you may pay $100-200 for a passport to allow you to vote, or call your representatives and senators and demand they vote no on this heinous bill.

Hilary Laihinen, Lakeville

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Republicans are reintroducing a voter registration bill called the SAVE Act. It was first introduced in 2024 when it passed in the House of Representatives. It has been reintroduced this year to the new Congress. The SAVE Act is clearly written to hinder legal citizens from voting, in particular, women. Among other things, it is the beginning of the initiative in Project 2025 to move to household voting, with one vote cast for the whole family.

The SAVE Act would require that you present, at time of voter registration, your passport, birth certificate or similar proof-of-citizenship document in person. This bill does little to prevent voter fraud, but it does impact women. Per Pew Research, 79% of married American women take their husband’s last name. If a married woman has not gotten a passport in her married name or has not paid to have her birth certificate updated to her married name, it is possible she would not be allowed to vote. Producing a marriage certificate is not listed as an acceptable form of documentation in the bill.

Last year, all of our Democratic representatives, Angie Craig, Betty McCollum, Dean Phillips and Ilhan Omar voted against this bill. All of our Republican representatives, Emmer, Fischbach, Finstad and Stauber voted to suppress voting rights, especially the rights of women. Please, whether you vote Republican or Democrat, save voting rights for women. Call your representative and tell them to vote no on the SAVE Act if they want to preserve any credibility with women voters.

Susan Flygare, Minneapolis

Peg Guilfoyle’s Feb. 14 commentary “May I have a word (or two or more)?” speculates that “the English language may require a touch of expansion soon in the category of villainy.”

I don’t think so. English has a suitable epithet already. It isn’t any newly minted or obscure expression. It’s “trumpery,” a common word that’s been in use since the 15th century.

“Trumpery,” as defined by the American Heritage Dictionary, 4th edition:

1) Showy but worthless finery; bric-a-brac.

2) Nonsense; rubbish.

3) Deception, trickery, fraud.

This derogatory expression, “trumpery,” is so verbally and semantically apt for our immediate dilemma, it’s so remarkably appropriate, that it seems sort of etymologically prescient, almost weirdly prophetic — almost amusingly so.

It really would be amusing, except that our American heritage of liberty, justice and democracy is being butchered before our eyes; except that the criminal regime in Washington is purposely pursuing policies inflicting immediate and irreparable harm to humanity’s common heritage — our planet’s biosphere, the ecological web of all life on Earth.

For the villains committing such unforgivable transgressions, Guilfoyle could be correct — no term of sufficient opprobrium has yet been found.

Oliver Steinberg, St. Paul

The writer is chairman of the Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis Party.

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In response to Guilfoyle’s question, “Do we have a shortage of words for political malfeasance?” in her commentary, my answer is no, and I am offering something old:

The word is “skulduggery” or “skullduggery.” Its origin is unknown and dates back to 1867. It is a noun and is defined as “underhanded or unscrupulous behavior,” also “a devious device or trick,” according to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.

Melvin Ogurak, Eden Prairie

The recent detention of two Rochester restaurant workers by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials represents a direct assault on our community’s values and basic human rights (“Two restaurant workers detained as ICE descends on Rochester,” StarTribune.com, Feb. 13).

These arrests are not isolated incidents but part of a systematic campaign to criminalize and terrorize our neighbors. While the Trump administration cynically labels immigrants as “criminals,” trans youth as victims of “extremism” and equity efforts as “radical,” our daily reality in our community tells a different story. Walk through our leading hospitals, where immigrant health care providers form the cornerstone of our world-class medical system. Visit our elementary schools, where children of all backgrounds and identities thrive together. Step into restaurant kitchens, where hardworking staff form the backbone of our local economy.

These targeted members of our community aren’t just statistics — they’re our colleagues, our children’s teachers, our essential workers. They represent the best of American values. Yet they now face an administration determined to strip away their dignity and security through aggressive enforcement and discriminatory policies.

The persecution of our neighbors is persecution of us all. When we stay silent while families are torn apart and workers are detained, we betray our values and weaken our democracy. Excluding others has never made our country stronger.

The time for passive concern is over. We must act now to protect our communities from those who threaten to tear it apart in the name of fear and division. History will judge us not by our words of sympathy, but by our actions in this crucial moment.

Evan Kanouse, Rochester