The ongoing wildfires in Northern Minnesota that have caused the closure of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area are threatening areas outside of the protected wilderness, as well. An evacuation order was issued Monday for a portion of Lake County — the first evacuation outside of the BWCA, reports the Star Tribune. And the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency issued a “very unhealthy” air quality alert through 11 a.m. Thursday for Cook, Lake, Itasca, Koochiching and St. Louis counties.
There are at least 20 active fires in the Superior National Forest, which includes the BWCAW, according to the Star Tribune’s ongoing reporting. Dangerously dry and extremely hot conditions are expected throughout the week.
Some Minnesotans who were adopted from outside the country have been tangled up in recent Immigration Customs and Enforcement actions, according to a feature in the Sahan Journal. According to some national estimates, up to 200,000 adoptees born since 1968 lack U.S. citizenship because their parents didn’t complete the required paperwork. “Getting formally adopted is a state court issue,” said Arissa Oh, a professor of immigration history at Boston College, in an interview with Sahan. “But some adoptive parents don’t realize that there’s another federal level for naturalization.” Even adoptees secure in their citizenship have had to overcome bureaucratic hurdles to prove it and have faced racial profiling and threats of deportation…