Jess Sundin: First Hand Report: Minneapolis Community Rises to Face Off w/ ICE Fascist Occupation
Editor’s Note: This throw down by the Minneapolis community is one of 3 very recent significant push backs to challenge the fascist ICE terror in our communities. The other examples include San Diego California where the community similarly rose up and confronted almost 40 ICE fascists also dressed in battle gear and with battle style rifles and massive youth protests of the illegal arrest of a Milford Massachusetts high school volley ball player on his way to practice with two friends. Stay tuned for editorial raising the question – are we facing a pending massacre of community defenders from ICE terror? Is the interruption of the ICE mission in two of these cases an indication that we have a method to start to fight and win against ICE?
Thank you Jess Sundin for this first hand report of this historic development!
by Jess Sundin
Yesterday’s (June 3) federal operation in my neighborhood was designed by Trump’s henchmen with the purpose of instilling fear in this predominantly immigrant community. This happened at Bloomington Ave. & E. Lake Street, at the intersection of Powderhorn and Phillips Neighborhoods (I’m on the Phillips side). Also known as the heart of the “Minneapolis Latino Cultural Corridor”. One older Black man mentioned yesterday, this is also the part of Minneapolis that was the most-impacted during the George Floyd rebellion. The very diverse community that rushed to the site are all folks who were directly impacted by the police and national guard occupations of our neighborhood during the Summer of 2020, and again during Chauvin’s trial in 2021.
Trump has said he’s going to target sanctuary cities (those with ordinances limiting local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement). Minneapolis is one (despite what we witnessed yesterday). This was a mutli-agency operation, including ICE.
ICE’s official statement on the incident celebrates the operation as “groundbreaking” in its scale, explicitly naming collaboration with local law enforcement: “Together, we are safeguarding communities, protecting national security, and setting a new standard of joint enforcement efforts.”
This is a troubling development and I want to see more elected officials denounce it.
15 years ago, my home was raided by the FBI executing a search warrant, looking for evidence of “material support to terrorism” (I was an anti-war activist). There were a dozen agents in windbreakers. None were wearing fatigues or masks, none were carrying rifles. There were no LRADs or armored vehicles parked on my block. Neither MPD nor HCSO showed up. (FWIW no charges were ever brought against me or anyone else in the case.)
Again, yesterday’s operation was *engineered* to instill fear. I am thankful that our neighbors turned out in droves to support our immigrant neighbors. The anti-immigrant hysteria from the White House should not be minimized, it should be challenged.
Frey and O’Hara tried to tell us that ICE was not involved, but we could see them with our own eyes. We were told MPD was on the scene to keep the community safe, but my own child and wife were brutally manhandled by them. That’s not hysteria, it’s reality. The other reality is that the overwhelming show of force (to reportedly make zero arrests), means that my neighbors are hiding at home today, and the parking lots in our busiest local businesses are empty.
We need electeds with the courage to stand by our commitment as a sanctuary city, not to make excuses for and assist with the abuses of our neighbors by federal agencies.
