Update from Minneapolis

A poster featuring the likeness of Renee Good hangs alongside pictures of George Floyd and other homicide victims near a memorial to Good on 15 January 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photograph: Scott Olson/Getty Images

I admire the heart and soul of my city.

This month has been and continues to be really hard for our community, but we have not taken the federal backed ICE invasion of our city lying down. 

I can only speak to my home city of Minneapolis, because I live here. I was born here in Minneapolis, raised by immigrants and activists, and this city is just as much part of my identity as my indigeneity or my gender. As the “Operation Metro Surge” continues, I have felt despair, fear, panic, but that’s all been uprooted by the sheer amount of determination, camaraderie, and hope there is from my friends and neighbors. 

ICE agents continue to patrol the streets, raiding homes, abducting our neighbors, and surveilling us; but our city has mobilized. Everybody is armed with whistles and fully charged phones to document all ICE actions. Neighborhoods have their own teams of observers— people whose role is to alert others in the area if they see an ICE agent or vehicle and record what happens. People are stepping up to donate and run supplies to families in need. “Protected people” stand watch and protest at the Whipple building (where detainees are being held) every day. People are rallying peacefully in the streets as often as we can. The love and care I’ve seen from my city is incredible. 

It’s still scary, but this crisis should show how much love and care for your neighbors goes. How bonded we are together. How much we get done when we take care of each other.

There are still people being abducted by ICE. The people detained by ICE are being kept from their loved ones and their attorneys. “Operation Metro Surge” is just the biggest and most televised operation happening right now. ICE has been continuing to abduct people in New York, Texas, California, Florida, even in states you’d never expect like Ohio and Michigan. If you’ve been looking for ways to get involved, do it now. 

Donating to your local organization that provides legal services to immigrants or runs supplies to families in need is imperative. Getting to know your neighbors, and organizing group chats, with them helps to keep our communities safe. Showing up for rallies tells our legislators that we need real change, and tells our communities that you stand with them. Pressure businesses to refuse service to ICE agents (the corporation, of course, the barista doesn’t get to make that decision). Join neighborhood patrols to watch and observe ICE activity in your area. Cook for your friends and neighbors who are the boots on the ground. 

Tips from organizing in Minneapolis:

• Be very careful with large unvetted groupchats. We are lowkey living in the shittiest spy movie ever and you have to assume large unvetted group chats have been infiltrated by ICE. This means don’t use your legal name, don’t post any identifying information about yourself, and take news with a grain of salt while in these larger unvetted chats. 

• Do not run supplies to families in hiding if you patrol. Patrol cars can be identified by law enforcement and targeted, which could compromise any supply runs done in this car.

• Meet your neighbors and meet them regularly. You’re most vital resource is each other.

• Dress for the weather. Here in Minneapolis we have a below zero wind chill in January and February that will give you frostbite in 10 minutes or less. Gloves, hats, scarves and layers of clothing are your best friend. If you know someone protesting or patrolling, make sure they’re warm. 

• Minneapolis has seen ICE use tear gas and hexachloroethane smoke against peaceful protesters and civilians. Hexachloroethane smoke is a hazardous substance and it's smoke is green, highly carcinogenic, and can be absorbed through the skin. Protect yourself by wearing goggles, gloves (think latex gloves over your cold weather gloves), covering exposed skin, and wearing non-absorbent material to avoid exposure to irritants when protesting. If for any reason you expect to face police or ICE violence, especially with the use of irritants, this guide extensively covers respirators for protesting.

• Be very careful antagonizing ICE agents. These people were handed guns, told they had federal immunity, and have demonstrated they will take out their anger on whoever’s in front of them. Protect yourself so you can keep protecting others.

• Protests and events have been ongoing throughout the month. Find yours locally participate in Friday’s (1/23/2026) “ICE OUT OF MINNESOTA: Day of Truth and Freedom” by not working, not going to school, not shopping, and/or protesting at your city hall or capital.

I want to end this on a positive note, but we’re still fighting for our lives and our neighbors. FBI is requesting extra agents to come to Minneapolis for unknown reasons. Donald Trump continues to threaten our city with using the insurrection act to “put and end” to protests here. Instead, I’ll give you a book recommendation that’s been helping me during the downtime: “Read This When Things Fall Apart: Letters to Activists in Crisis” edited by Kelly Hayes. We are not the first to fight back against this face of fascism, we won’t be the last, and stories and books like this one help remind me how held by our community, our city, and even the world at times, we continue to be.