Minnesota Attorney General DFL candidate Tom Foley visited Austin on Wednesday while campaigning through Southern Minnesota.

Foley, who grew up in the Austin, Rochester and Wabasha area, stopped by the Herald’s office Wednesday afternoon.

“I’m campaigning to be attorney general because I believe I have the most experience and a track record to run that diverse, complex legal office,” he said. “I feel strongly that the Attorney General’s office needs some new leadership and should focus on issues that are facing the 21st century.”

Foley played basketball at Austin Junior College and was a member of the P-9 Union at the Hormel meatpacking plant before graduating from the University of Minnesota with a law degree.

He was the Deputy Commissioner of Corrections in the 1970s. He also served four terms as the Ramsey County Attorney and served as the Washington County Attorney.

“During that time I championed and brought forth a number of innovative programs that I thought were helpful to the county attorney’s office. I had one of the first family violence and child abuse units, I started the Victim Witness program, a domestic abuse and sexual assault units; those were special prosecution units the office did not have.”

Foley also said he is an attorney with the Alliance for Tribal Justice, which represents 30 tribes and 20 healthcare providers throughout the United States in cases against opioid manufacturers.

“It’s going to take strong litigation to turn the activities of some of the manufacturers,” he said. “They created this. When the doctors were protesting and saying the pain medication wasn’t working, but people were getting addicted, they said, ‘No, the problem is you’re not giving them enough opioids,’ so they increased the dosage people were receiving. It’s really devastating what they’ve done.”

Foley also cited environmental crimes, domestic violence, sex trafficking in rural Minnesota and tribal reservations and scaling back regulations as major issues facing Minnesota from a legal perspective.

“The federal government is rolling back a lot of the regulations that help people,” he said. “The credit card companies are going to start having no regulations again and they’re going to start preying on people. (The people) need a strong consumer advocate. Our senior citizens are being preyed upon in some of the healthcare facilities. A strong attorney general can take measures to step up and prevent the mistreatment of our seniors.

Foley also weighed in on the Trump administration’s immigration policy.

“I think our immigrant community has to be welcomed into Minnesota and to know that their voice is being heard and respected and that the laws apply to them equally,” he said. “The Attorney General really has to be smart about what kind of actions to take. Some of the other candidates are saying, ‘Well, I’m anti-Trump and elect me because I’m going to fight the Trump administration.’ I think you fight him when it’s effective and when there are some real laws that effect the state of Minnesota.”

Foley, however, was critical of the Trump administration’s recent decision to repatriate an American citizen, whose name was withheld, who spent 15 years in prison in China for murder and has a documented history of mental illness, violent acts, and the stockpiling of weapons into Minnesota, despite having no family in the state.

“I’m appalled that the Trump administration would select Minnesota to put not only a convicted murderer, but a mentally ill convicted murderer that spent 15 years in China,” he said. “They’re attempting to repatriate him to Minnesota where he doesn’t have any family connections. He is going to be a severe public safety risk. Because of the way our state laws and the Repatriation Act works, he may be released to the general public because the federal government has not certified him as mentally ill. “If I was Attorney General, I would be completely opposed to this person relocating here and do everything in my power to prevent the Trump administration from repatriating him here,” he said. “I would talk to the U.S. Attorney’s office and have him get the Department of Justice to work with the Health and Human Services people in Washington, D.C. and prevent him from coming here or, at the very minimum, get his records so we would have the legal ability to detain this individual and have a psychiatric evaluation done until we know what’s going on.”

The man is scheduled to arrive in Minnesota on Monday, July 23, though it is unknown where he plans to live. Foley said the man would not be a resident of Minnesota for 30 days, so a number of safety net procedures available to assist people would not be available to him.

“I’m very concerned for the public’s safety,” he said.

Foley is facing opposition from Congressman Keith Ellison, State Representative Debra Hilstrom, Attorney Matt Pelikan and former State Commerce Mike Rothman on the DFL ticket; however, he hopes his experience will sway voters, particularly in Southern Minnesota.

“I know Austin, Mower County, Rochester and Albert Lea; I have deep family roots here,” he said. “I am the most qualified person. I have the most experience; I’ve brought about the most innovative programs as county attorney for two of the more populous counties. I would like to take my experience, move the Attorney General’s office in a different direction and reinvigorate that office. It needs a change right now and I think I’m the person to do it.”