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For the past three years, the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin, in partnership with the Seminole Tribe of Florida, has sought federal approval to build an off-reservation casino in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Their efforts face a long and troubled history: criminal investigations and reports of corruption have repeatedly derailed similar proposals over the past three decades. The tribe’s latest application, now under review by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs, gives federal authorities yet another reason to proceed with caution.
Buried within the tribe’s Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with the City of Kenosha is a clause requiring that 25 percent of all hires be reserved for minority applicants. When paired with the likelihood that the Seminole Tribe will fill many key positions with its own out-of-state members, the promise of local job creation for Kenosha residents looks doubtful.
This DEI-based hiring quota was proposed by the Menominee Tribe and approved by both the City and County of Kenosha during the Biden Administration—an administration that heavily promoted diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) mandates, pressuring public institutions and private corporations to adopt them while spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on related grants.
Recognizing that these mandates are often discriminatory, costly, and potentially unlawful, President Trump directed federal agencies to “take all appropriate action” to restore a culture of merit, individual initiative, and excellence in the workplace.”
It’s also worth noting that DEI programs have become a lucrative industry for consulting firms that claim expertise in compliance and training. In fact, an ethics complaint has already been filed against a Kenosha city official whose consulting firm may personally profit from the casino agreement.
Given the discriminatory hiring provisions embedded in the Menominee Tribe’s IGA and the decades-long pattern of controversy surrounding previous Kenosha casino proposals, the Bureau of Indian Affairs should reject the tribe’s latest application outright. The risks—to taxpayers, local workers, and the integrity of the process—are simply too great.
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