I live in South Minneapolis, just over 4 miles from where Renee Good was killed. I am not from MN, but I moved here 25 years ago as a recent college graduate, looking for a nice affordable place to live with job opportunities and a vibrant art scene. I found all of that and more here. Despite the cold, the people here are warm and welcoming where it matters.
There is an immense pride in this place that knows you help people even if you don’t know them--pushing a car out of the snow, getting groceries for your neighbors, investing in our parks and schools. I met my husband here (also a transplant), and we love our life here. We do not make a lot of money, but we work jobs we love and can afford a small house in a nice neighborhood and like most places in Minneapolis, it's walking distance from a lake and several great parks. It is a safe, lovely place to raise our son, who goes to the public school two blocks from our house.
At least it was safe until ICE officers came to town. Whatever you think about the reasoning behind cracking down on illegal immigration or putting away criminals, that is not what is happening here. It is not a targeted operation but an occupation that continues to drag on with no foreseeable end.
We now have an estimated 3,000 ICE officers here in a city that only has 600 police officers. These agents are not looking for specific people they know are undocumented or going after criminal offenders. They work in unmarked cars, wearing masks, armed with military weapons and refusing to identify themselves.
They are incompetent, ill-trained and clearly not following any standard law enforcement protocols and are going out of their way to intimidate everyone, not just folks they think are undocumented. Unlike immigration officers from previous administrations, they have a directive and monetary incentives to detain as many people as they can, even if they end up releasing them later because it turns out they are citizens or have no reason to hold them in the first place.
Anyone who is not white is a target, anyone with an accent is a target, anyone peacefully and legally observing is a target; which basically means we all feel unsafe. As I said, we look out for our neighbors here. So when you see your neighbor who you know is a citizen being dragged from their car, you speak out, you blow a whistle, you help them get groceries so they won't be taken on the way to their jobs.
Businesses are closing or trying to cover for employees who are too scared to come to work. Parents are afraid to send their kids to school and daycare because teachers and caregivers are targets, and kids are just collateral damage.
This is affecting every single person who lives here, regardless of race, citizenship status or income level — everyone who lives here is scared. Think about that. We’re scared of our own government. Our federal government has declared war on our state, and everyone is affected including those who voted for this.
We are doing what we can, trying to make sure our voices get heard through peaceful and regular protest. A couple weeks ago, businesses recently closed for one of the biggest general strikes in US history. An estimated 50,000 people gathered in subzero temperatures to protest, and there was not one reported injury or broken window.
But the next morning there was another person killed by ICE agents, Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse at our local VA Hospital. The media likes to portray these incidents as an inevitable result of protests getting out of hand, but Alex Pretti and Renée Good were not at protests. They were simply normal people in their neighborhoods who stopped what they were doing to help their neighbors. Protests have followed these incidents as a response because that is one of the only tools we have. Although ICE agents are paid to be here and detain people (at the taxpayer's expense), protestors are not. Minnesota is historically one of the most civically engaged states with one of the highest voter turnouts. We care what happens here, and we are happy to brave the weather and take time out of our days and nights to exercise our First Amendment rights.
In short, ICE is causing needless chaos and violence in our city and to what end? We are not safer, our kids are scared and businesses are hurting. It's easy to feel helpless in times like these, but you can help by spreading the word and contacting your representatives and senators, not just for us but for our country. They're already using the same playbook in other states like Maine and Pennsylvania. And I promise you, you don't want this in your town.
Irish American Community Leader, Minneapolis, MN
(Name with Editor)
