I have loved this city for a long time, but never as much as I have loved it this last week. This is a long post. I promise that it ends with some hope for all of us.
Over the last month, but especially in the last week, ICE has been attacking Minnesota, concentrating in the metro area. And on Wednesday, they shot and killed Renee Good, a Minneapolis resident, mother, wife, and someone who had been trying to help keep her neighbors safe.
I understand that from a distance, it’s probably difficult to know what you can and cannot believe. There is so much mis- and dis- information in the world. Since most people reading this will know me personally or know me from the math education community, I want to share my personal experiences of living here. I am not parroting random things from the internet. I am sharing the experiences I know to be true from living here and talking with my neighbors in the city.
Several weeks ago, ICE appeared to be targeting what could plausibly be considered specific individuals. That is no longer the case. They are now grabbing anyone they feel like grabbing. Early this past week, there were many reports in neighborhood chats that they were taking people from bus stops. Neighbors who were already caring for their neighborhoods focused their attention to protect bus stops.
Agents are entering restaurants and heading straight for the kitchens. Neighbors, who had just been eating brunch, are standing in front of the door, whistling them away, calling their friends to come help make them leave.
It has been well documented, even before this surge in Minnesota, that they are taking citizens and non citizens alike. That is also true here. They have even detained Native Americans. Anyone who is Black or brown seems to be a target. Community members who are driving around to observe their neighborhoods have been led to their own homes by agents in cars. A clear intimidation tactic. This morning, agents are tagging cars of commuters with pepper spray, and they continue to arrest legal observers. One of the most reliable ways community members say they can identify cars as belonging to ICE agents is they are often speeding, driving erratically, and blowing through stop signs and red lights.
This escalation has already had tragic results. On Wednesday, they killed Renee Good. After that, they simply kept going. To my grief and rage, they showed up at dismissal at Roosevelt High School. I student taught there. I hope my children will someday go there. My friend’s children currently do.
They claim they were chasing someone and that chase led them to RHS. Even if we are to take that as true, it’s a school. That should have ended it. There were kids everywhere. A law enforcement professional whose actual goal was to protect a community should never attack a school. If the person they were chasing was such a high priority target, surely they would have other ways of finding them. It’s not worth endangering kids. But I don’t believe they are professional, nor do I believe they want to keep us safe. They are intentionally stoking fear and chaos.
Minneapolis Public Schools closed entirely on Thursday and Friday to keep students and staff safe from ICE. Let that sink in. We are keeping kids out of school because of fear of federal agents. In fact, Minneapolis is going to offer an online option through February 12th in order to help keep students safe. Educator unions have held press conferences explaining that agents are circling schools, waiting to snatch families coming to pick up their children.
One of the more astonishing sadnesses is that a regular target right now are daycares. DAYCARES. I personally texted a friend to let them know that community members had seen ICE scoping out their child’s daycare, and then I went to participate in a safety patrol there. We use numbers to scare them off. If 15 people are waiting on the sidewalk with whistles and cameras, maybe they will be shamed into leaving alone the places and people we entrust with our children. It has been an effective tactic so far.
If someone you know has supported mass deportations, please ask them (or ask yourself, if you are the person who supported it): Was the goal that we should be afraid to leave our homes with our kids? Was the goal to shut down schools? Is the murder of Renee Good worth it? Do you understand now that they never meant to go after the “worst of the worst”, but instead intended to enact this white supremacist ethnic cleansing that is tearing our communities apart? I would like to know, but the questions are rhetorical, because no matter the answer, this is the result. We are all here now, and we all need to work together to end it.
I hope that any person who wanted mass deportations sees now they were fooled. If they really believed the lies that this administration meant to go after “bad guys”, I hope they are horrified at what is happening right now in my city. Because we need them to join us in ending this chaos. We need everyone. They can make amends by helping restore safety to our communities. That means ICE needs to leave. Now.
And they cannot just leave to go inflict this terror elsewhere. We have to end this completely. They are emboldened and brazen and getting more aggressive by the day. They will not go to the next city and start from square one, pretending they’re only there to get the bad guys. They will carry this aggression with them. They have to be disbanded and held accountable.
Right now, we are cautioning each other to travel in groups. To make sure someone knows where you are at all times. In honesty, I have spent much of the last week afraid, just like most of the other residents of the city. But that fear exists alongside a deep well of pride and conviction.
I know, deep in my bones, that they will not win. It is simply not possible for this to continue forever. The speed with which it ends depends on the speed and strength with which we can organize. We must be strategic, and we must do it together. I am so proud of the absolutely astonishing response from this community. We are organizing in levels I haven’t personally experienced in my lifetime. I expect other people have organized like this before, and part of why we are here now is that I, and others like me, have not yet participated. We must make up for that lack now. I, too, bear culpability for why we are here. So I am doing everything in my power to help. Join us.
Every neighborhood has multiple chats. Every school, every day care, every community center has a plan in place. Is connected to another group. Are prepared to swarm in defense of those we love. Regular people have flyered their neighborhoods. Experienced organizers are leading the effort and we are learning from them. Community members have installed art around the city with information on how to become engaged in community response. Because we cannot respond in time to an abduction 25 miles away, each place hit teaches the next. LA taught Chicago. Chicago taught us. The cities are now teaching greater Minnesota. We share what we know so every community can build on those lessons for themselves.
We are moving beyond the idea that “mutual aid” is just giving money to someone you deem worthy of your charity. We are organizing food drives, driving people to and from work, picking up each other’s children. We are going on safety patrols and checking in on small businesses. We are canvassing business corridors with posters and know your rights cards. People drop off 3D printed whistles for other people to distribute. We’re hosting neighborhood meetings. We’re setting up watches at businesses that have been intimidated and we’re whistling to warn each other when the real bad guys are near.
Protests have been enormous and they have also been small. I saw one woman holding a sign, at a busy intersection, by herself, that read “Ice Cowards Go Home”. It was about half a mile away from a family protest of >200 people. The gathering at Powderhorn park on Saturday 1/10/26 was so big that it took more than an hour for people to start marching. Someone climbed a tree to make sure we were going in the right direction. Friends were made while we waited. Catharsis felt while we screamed our collective rage and grief. We promised to take care of each other.
Like many of you, I watched what happened in LA and Chicago with growing dread. I figured it may come here, but I never imagined how swiftly and violently it would descend. I pray it doesn’t come to any of you, and I suspect it will.
So go meet your neighbor. Have the awkward conversation “Isn’t it awful what’s happening in Minneapolis?” Follow up. I think we shy from organizing because we’re waiting for someone to provide us a professional looking form titled “Join your community”. My experience has been texting my neighbors on this street and jumping into conversations at local diners.
We need each other, and happily, there are so very many more of us than there are of them. After Renee Gold was murdered, I feared the response of the community would be to hide. It has been the opposite. Signal chats have tripled in size. Every day there are multiple community organizing meetings. We are creating art to bolster our spirits, and we are connecting with strangers who become friends so we can keep each other safe while we protect the most vulnerable among us. If it comes your way, you will do this, too. It will be so much easier if you start (or continue) now. Build upon what’s already there. Talk to the other parents at daycare or school. Invite some people over for board games or a skill share. Actually say hi to your neighbor. Make it awkward by forcing more conversation. You will likely be surprised that the other person was probably waiting for someone else to invite them in. Be that invite. Now you are two. Go get a third.
There is no one way to engage. You could be a direct responder. You could fundraise. You could coordinate rides to work or you could write letters to the school board so they move to online learning or set up a school safety watch. Their gloves are off, so we must join hands to care for each other.
Minneapolis, I love you so much. I am so proud of the ways we are showing up. This is a scary time, but I am deeply comforted by the ways we are taking care of each other. I believe, deeply, that the best way for me to keep my kids safe is to make sure everyone else’s kids have safety and all the things they need. I will keep yours safe, and I know now that this city will do everything they can to keep mine safe, too.
If you are not in Minneapolis and you are moved to act, first, organize near you. That is the most important. If you want to help us, there are 3 things you can do right now: You can donate to any organization at all that is doing work to protect us here. I will suggest a few below. Second, talk to other people about what is happening here. Make it easy for other people to agree, to believe how bad it is, and help build the political will we’re going to need to end this. Third, call your elected officials and make clear that they have to stop it here so it does not come to you, too. We can end this. We must do it together.
Ayada Leads
CAIR Minnesota
Volunteer Lawyers Network
Immigrant Law Center of MN
Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid
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