Over the past several weeks, the increased and sprawling presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the Twin Cities has been met with an activated community response.
That response has mobilized local networks of support that include the coordination of legal aid, child care and food delivery in order to provide people who might be afraid to navigate public life on their own.
Community centered responses to “Operation Metro Surge” – the ICE campaign name in the Twin Cities – have also included hyperlocal coordination of defense and protection in the form of organized community patrols that serve as the eyes and ears of neighborhoods that have been subject to targeted ICE presence.
This past month a group of around 30 people in their 20s and 30s came together at the Cedar Riverside Opportunity Center to discuss what they were going to do to protect and assist residents within the densely populated Minneapolis, largely Somali, neighborhood from interactions with ICE, all with the aim to decrease fear and ensure residents can leave their homes feeling safe and secure from terror.