This is my home county and my parents and brother still live there. While it's a conservative place this is probably just as related due to strains on public services than Trumpy xenophobia. I mean don't get me wrong that's definitely a factor and I'd definitely oppose it if I still lived there but that's what the quotes from politicians in the article are stating and they're more of a scapegoat than just being targeted for that sake.
North Dakota has less than 800,000 people.
Are they afraid they don't have enough room?
In Burleigh County, yeah, kind of. It's not a question of "room" but accommodations. Bismarck's population boom wasn't something the city was prepared for, especially as the city didn't require extensive social services due to the lack of violent crime and poverty in the area before the new millenium. Bismarck has a bit of a housing crisis, while there's tons of new houses being built due to all the empty space for development that's not really helpful if you can't afford to buy one (these are pretty large houses aimed at families after all), daycare is hard to get, all the local ones are full and there's about a five month waiting period to get in, homelessness is a pretty severe problem especially as there isn't a lot of homeless shelters, two years ago the only men's shelter in the city closed and had to resort to makeshift ones partnered with local non-profits and things like putting people in school gyms and YMCAs over the winter. The court system, police department, social services, hospitals are all pretty strained and overworked despite expansions the last couple years as violent crime has skyrocketed.
Of course refugees aren't the reason for this and this is basically a scapegoating attempt.
