It is -21°F outside, and we are protesting.
This is what it's been like living in Minneapolis since ICE murdered Renee Good.
Let me begin by saying that this newsletter won’t be about my usual topic (my forthcoming Link Wray biography), or even about music. It’s about something more important: what’s happening in Minneapolis, the city I’ve called home for 22 years. Now, I realize most of you reading this aren’t in or familiar with Minneapolis or Minnesota, or perhaps not even the United States. That’s exactly why I’m sending it. Consider this an S.O.S. And for my fellow Americans, a preview of what might happen near you.
I live in South Minneapolis, one of the areas that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has hit especially hard by Operation Metro Surge, a mass deportation effort the government began here in December. On January 7, an ICE agent — tasked with enforcing immigration laws — murdered Renee Good, an unarmed U.S. citizen and constitutional observer who was legally documenting ICE activity in the city. He did it just blocks away from where a Minneapolis Police Department officer killed George Floyd in May 2020.
I don’t think people outside Minnesota or the United States — even some outside the immediate Twin Cities metro — fully understand the depth and scope of what’s happening here. I see why. We have to navigate through propaganda on social media, and there are a lot of people in our country who refuse to believe the truth when they see it with their own eyes anyway. It’s all happening fast, there are too many competing narratives, and there’s a concerted effort by the White House and the media it controls (either directly or indirectly) to distract, spin the truth, and often outright lie about what is happening. We live in a world where news sources are growing increasingly partisan, online spaces are infiltrated with clickbait, AI slop, bots, troll armies, and insidious influencers — some of that garbage paid for with our own federal tax dollars, by the way. We are all overwhelmed as neverending national and global crises compete for our attention.
Originally I’d planned to start by sharing some background about Minnesota culture and politics to to give a broader perspective for those who may not be caught up. But actually, I don’t think you need context or political background to be able to understand that what is happening here is Wrong — capital W — and needs to stop. However, if you are truly curious how we got here politically, the article I linked to above about White House-funded influencers does a pretty good job summarizing that at a high level.
While I am by no means a political reporter, constitutional analyst, immigration expert, or activist, I am a human being with eyes and ears and a brain. I am a U.S. citizen, voter, taxpayer, employee, and mom who has made the effort over the years to engage with the place I live and the people who live here with me. Since Renee Good was killed, I’ve been processing the disgust by writing it all down. These are some of the things I’ve observed, as well as several stories that have been in the news but you may not have seen.
It sounds like a horror movie every time I think about it: An armed federal agent who lives in a suburb 20 minutes away executes a U.S. citizen, a fellow Minnesotan and a mother of three — who has committed no crime, much less an immigration offense. He films the murder he commits with his phone in his other hand, in broad daylight while her spouse looks on. Then, as if he’s casually offing an NPC in Grand Theft Auto, he calls the woman he just shot “fucking bitch.”
By the way, instead of giving her CPR (which they’re trained to do), ICE left her in her car bleeding while blocking bystanders, including someone who said they were a doctor, from giving her medical attention. They took three minutes to call for an ambulance. And when it did arrive, an investigation showed later, she was still alive but not breathing with gunshot wounds to her chest, face, and arm.
Either before or after they whisked the shooter into hiding (and our government rushed to announce that what we saw happen actually did not happen, oh and ny the way she was also a domestic terrorist — convenient!), ICE showed up at a local high school and pepper sprayed teenagers and teachers at dismissal time while agents were pursuing a suspect.
The next day, they dragged off one of the high schoolers who works at my local Target (a U.S. citizen) and left him bleeding in a parking lot across town in the middle of a Minnesota January.
That weekend, they threw a flash-bang tear gas grenade at a car with six kids inside, belonging to a family that was just trying to get home from their son’s basketball game as protests surged after yet another ICE shooting. Neighbors helped get the family inside as the 6-month-old stopped breathing and the mom gave her baby mouth-to-mouth. Three of the kids were hospitalized.
Also that weekend, they targeted and detained Native Americans, who have had full birthright U.S. citizenship since 1924. That violates federal treaties, btw. They have been ramming cars and breaking windows, dragging people out of their vehicles to detain them. Oh, and they’ll cut you out of your seatbelt, drag you off, and detain you for accidentally pulling into a blocked street for your doctor appointment and not being able to move your car.
When that wasn’t enough, ICE started going door to door, asking questions like, “Where are the Asian people?” It’s not solely an urban issue, either. They have spread out to suburbs and smaller towns, being complete assholes and pepper spraying 15-year-old girls along the way. They racially profiled an off-duty police officer in the suburb of Brooklyn Park. Separated toddlers from their parents. They came back to South Minneapolis in full force on Wednesday; someone in my neighborhood filmed them grabbing an adolescent off the street while I was working from home.
Also on Wednesday, they pulled 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos — whose family’s lawyer says they are in the process of seeking asylum and has no deportation orders against them — out of of his dad’s running car as he came home from school. ICE forced Liam to open the door to his house (so agents could gain access inside without having the proper warrant). As a family member outside begged to let Liam stay behind, the agents detained Liam, still in his coat and backpack from school, and his father. Liam’s older brother arrived home from school later to find his dad and brother gone. Their lawyer thinks they might be in Texas now, hopefully together.
Some other observations:
Helicopters and drones nearly 24/7 for two weeks now. Sirens make me involuntarily panic.
Caravans of ICE agents regularly show up at schools, daycares, and preschools during dropoff, pickup, and during the school day. Sometimes they just circle the school. At first it was assumed they were looking for teachers, staff, or parents, but clearly they’re now also targeting toddlers and elementary school kids. School transport vehicles are also being pulled over for ID checks. This MPR article has a good explainer of how all of this is affecting school logistics. Many districts are offering e-learning options, and even many citizens are keeping their kids home.
Volunteer safety patrols are organizing all over the city to keep an eye on schools, bus stops, churches, clinics, and other vulnerable locations. The ICE agents have been trying to infiltrate the safety patrols, striking up conversations with parents near schools to get information on coverage, or pretending to be a concerned neighbor in order to be let into secret online chats. They’re planting seeds of distrust among us, obviously.
There have also been reports of ICE posing as journalists to get information out of people, or driving in cars falsely labeled as PRESS. They’re also showing up to ICE raids posing as constitutional observers (what Nicole Good was doing when the agent killed her). I heard one agent doing this was even driving around in a car with “Vegan” and “Coexist” stickers to try and blend in. What a commitment to the bit!!
We are 100% under extra surveillance right now — not just at protests, either.
ICE is always over-the-top armed with huge guns, full tactical gear, masks, Call of Duty style. Even when they’re standing around outside a gas station or raiding a preschool. They seem to want to traumatize everyone.
Groups of 3-4 or more agents are ambushing individuals at bus stops, stores, gas pumps, off of sidewalks, at traffic lights. It looks and feels exactly like watching a kidnapping. As one resident said, “It’s like they’re hunting.”
They are clearly racially profiling, which our Supreme Court said “NBD, sure, go ahead” to back in September, but will harass or pick up anyone. They don’t care if you are a U.S. citizen. If they want to take you, they’ll find a reason to take you. If you’re a citizen, you may get released in a day, but you’re fair game again once they let you out of the detention center. The Sahan Journal, a nonprofit newsroom here in Minnesota, has been reporting on agents’ unconstitutional behavior and what happens when citizens are detained.
Due to the overt racial profiling, some people of color that I know — U.S. citizens, mind you — are taking extra steps to protect themselves and their families. Not all, but some.
I know people, citizens, who are really worried — if not for themselves, for their neighbors, friends, co-workers, and family members. I also know people who are going about their day seemingly not giving it too much thought. I think most people are somewhere in between. For me, the worry sort of ebbs and flows depending on the events of the day and how much activity I’ve seen. And of course, during work or parenting time, you have to compartmentalize. But that’s hard to do when ICE agents are constantly circling. Or when people are threatening the school Renee Good’s 6-year-old son attends, which is in my neighborhood.
SUVs and trucks with out-of-state, missing, or obscured plates running red lights, driving recklessly on ice- and snow-covered residential streets, including mine, constantly.
Anti-ICE protests obviously are happening — most that I’ve heard about seem well organized and have the safety and security of everyone top of mind. From my understanding, nonviolence is the expectation among those who attend. (Remember, protests are supposed to be disruptive in order to work.) It seems that ICE’s response to protestors exercising their rights has been creating more problems than the protestors themselves. That, and right-wing influencers and grifters coming into town to intentionally aggravate and bring out counterprotestors in order to create viral content — like last weekend. (And yes, I’m sure some garbage left-wing influencers and grifters are probably coming here to ca$h in as well, and that’s just as disgusting.)
This is affecting the local economy. In addition to the U.S. government’s retaliatory federal funding cutoff starting February 1, businesses in the state that depend on the labor of undocumented immigrants (which is A LOT of businesses in A LOT of industries) are closed or working with skeleton crews. Undocumented immigrants also pay upwards of $200 million in Minnesota taxes every year.
There is a statewide general strike today, with lots of business closures, protests, and community events planned. I will be attending an outdoor event later even though the temperature right now is -21°F. That’s how sick of this shit I am. However, I take a little solace in knowing that this is a state where we drink beer on frozen lakes for fun. We can handle it. IDK if these guys can.
My spidey sense is telling me that this will accelerate in the coming weeks, months, possibly years. Anti-ICE sentiment was strong before but has only intensified since Renee Good’ death. The people I have talked to are experiencing rage, grief, worry, helplessness, and hypervigilance. Some people are just simply pissed off. Of course there are people who don’t know or care what’s happening, and a very vocal minority that support ICE and will bend over backwards trying justify what they’re doing. Most people I know are are just concerned with keeping everyone safe and traumatizing their kids as little as possible. I get the sense that we as a larger community understand that we might have to do this indefinitely. And like the summer after George Floyd’s murder, we know we will never be the same — even if ICE were to pick up and leave tomorrow.
I do think there is a little empowerment hidden in the fact that the veil is off now. The fascism and the lies are out on the open, with the administration no longer even attempting to obscure them or walk back their unhinged comments. We saw in summer 2020 and we’re seeing again that we can help protect each other. We’ve learned that no politicians, no big corporations, no celebrities, no nonprofits, no leaders, no benevolent billionaires, no religious leaders, will come to save us. Nor could or would they fix it. They’ve made it abundantly clear that we are not their primary concern. We are our only safety net now.
If you think you’re exempt or you can avoid this because you’re a citizen, because of how you voted, because you’re a certain income, age, race, religion, you follow the law, have a certain job or education, live in a certain state — sorry, nope. Maybe it won’t be immigration raids, but it will be something, and eventually it will directly affect you and those you care about. And when that happens, ourselves and each other are going to be all we can truly count on. So if you want others to be that safety net for you, you have to start being it for others.
If you’re in America and you don’t want to live like this anymore and you don’t know where to start, here are some places to start:
· Call and email your U.S. Representatives and Senators (doesn’t matter which party) as many times as you can stomach to demand that your tax dollars not be spent on unconstitutional and unjust action against U.S. citizens or immigrants. Check in with your state or local politicians to see how they’ll handle it if and when the federal government starts sending in agents to violate their constituents’ rights.
· Join or start a community defense or mutual aid network. In Minneapolis we have Defend612 to connect for block monitoring, safety patrols, distributing supplies, mutual aid, and more. If you can’t get involved personally, donate to vetted groups who already know what they’re doing. (Read this Boston Review article about the city’s mutual aid network for inspiration.)
· Know your (and your family’s, friends’, co-workers’, and neighbors’) rights before they are violated. Immigrant Legal Resource Center has some great resources for everyone. ICE agents have been outright lying to people about the law, DHS policy, recent court rulings, what kind of warrants they need to enter a home, etc. They do this to citizens and noncitizens alike, and count on people being scared and not knowing any better — especially people who are new to the country or whose primary language is not English. The federal government has been very open (dare I say, excited?) about violating our First and Fourth Amendment rights. The burden will be on us to know when they do it, and to fight back.
This wasn’t meant to scare or depress anyone, but instead to remind you that there’s still time to do something. Protesting can be done in big and small ways, sometimes even just with your wallet. Remember that the lines between alertness, caution, panic, and paranoia can blur very quickly when tensions are high, especially when we’re all dealing with everything else. Overconsuming news and social media content — no matter your sources or ideology — can speed that up. The creators of propaganda, bots, and misleading AI understand that, and they are counting on the distrust and chaos it fuels.
I’ll have much more Link Wray and book news later, but this felt too important to not say right now.
Stay safe out there,
Dana