Huron Recall Complicated by Racial Prejudice

Last updated on 2013.10.25

The Huron mayoral recall push should be a simple matter of right and wrong.

• Wrong: Mayor Dave McGirr and his fellow city commissioners, who suspended police chief Doug Schmitt for exercising his First Amendment rights and apparently drove him to resign.
• Also Wrong: the big Huron employers hiring illegal immigrants whom the mayor and commission appear to be protecting.
• Right: former Chief Schmitt and the recall petitioneers who want to hold the city accountable.

Jon Walker's high-quality journalism in Friday's paper blurs my easy moral lines. It still seems pretty clear that Chief Schmitt crossed no legal or professional line in testifying before the Legislature about illegal immigration in Huron and that the Huron City Commission acted improperly in suspending him. But in Walker's report, the supposedly evil, overreaching mayor speaks most intelligently about illegal immigration:

I believe there are illegal workers in the Huron area as there are in virtually every city of South Dakota.... We can't go door to door asking people to prove their citizenship. It's simply against the Constitution [Huron mayor Dave McGirr, quoted in Jon Walker, "Illegal Immigration Colors Huron Politics," that Sioux Falls paper, 2011.05.13].

The next time our state legislature tries usurping federal authority on immigration, I want Mayor McGirr to testify.

Meanwhile, Officer Schmitt and his supporters come off sounding more concerned about profiling and punishing people from elsewhere than punishing the wealthy American businesses that exploit illegal immigrant labor:

I'm not sure how to say this so I don't sound like a darn racist. They think nothing about leaving a 2-year-old in a car while going into Walmart. We have many more calls for service. Crime goes up. There's more domestic violence. There's more criminal activity based on their culture and their norms, more of a burden on law enforcement, a burden on medical facilities [Doug Schmitt, in Walker, 2011.05.13].

Dakota Provisions boss and lawyer Jeff Sveen says Schmitt is right: he does sound like a racist:

He had no comment on the effort to oust McGirr but thinks the accusations trace to a human problem.

"They're prejudiced. ... Everybody is entitled to his own opinion. I just happen to think people are all the same, regardless of race or creed," Sveen said [Walker 2011.05.13].

I hate giving Sveen any credit: he also says with a straight face that he doesn't think his plant has any illegal workers. So let me turn toward Kevin Woster's reaction for support:

But Walker's piece is troubling, particularly some comments by Schmitt. In one instance the former chief leaves the impression that he might think Hispanic people are more inclined toward domestic violence, other types of crime and disregard for their children. He speaks in context of illegals but refers to such problems as being part of "their culture and their norms."

That's an unsettling step toward racism, and one the former chief probably didn't mean to take. It's likely that he meant that illegals who end up in Huron bring with them such distorted cultural norms. But even that seems broad and illogical. Surely even the bulk of those who seek work in difficult jobs without proper papers are good people who care for their children and pose no safety threat to society.

Which is not to disregard the crime and other problems that can come with some of the illegals. But isn't the key there "some of"? [Kevin Woster, "What Could He Mean by 'Their Culture and Their Norms'?" Mount Blogmore, 2011.05.13]

Mayor McGirr sees racism among his fellow Huronians as well:

I've had people walk up and say you can't walk down the street without meeting a dozen illegal aliens.... They would have no way of knowing they're illegal aliens. It's a statement made solely on the basis of race [Dave McGirr, in Walker 2011.05.13].

Of course, the mayor (and reporter Walker) might want to ask Ron Volesky, enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, for his opinion on the racial motivations of his Huron neighbors.

Huron's recall petitioneers must know that comments like Schmitt's will draw charges of racism and undermine support for their campaign. Recallers should not make the campaign about hard-working folks from Mexico and Cambodia who travel thousands of miles (from much warmer places) to take crappy jobs and feed their families. Instead of getting bogged down in broad-brush accusations against people who don't look like them, Schmitt and his supporters should focus on the issues of free speech and local crony capitalism.