This story comes to you from MPR News through a partnership with Sahan Journal.
Lesly Vera wanted to be a police officer for as long as she could remember. The 27-year-old was born in Mexico, came to the United States at age 4 and grew up in Minneapolis.
She followed the path that many young people take into the profession, working as a civilian community service officer while earning a law enforcement degree. But a big obstacle stood in her way.
While Vera is a legal, permanent U.S. resident, she’s not a citizen. But thanks to a recent change in state law, Vera was finally able to walk across the stage Thursday evening at the Minneapolis Police Department’s latest recruit graduation ceremony.
Vera is the first green card holder to be sworn in as an MPD officer, but she wasn’t the only trailblazer in the group of 23 new officers sworn in at the ceremony.
Standing alongside her was officer Ikran Mohamed, 23, the first Somali-American woman to join the department.
Mohamed came to the United States from Kenya at age 10, spent her teenage years in Faribault and worked as a correctional officer in Owatonna before applying to MPD.