On the Front Line of Minnesota’s Fight With ICE
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For weeks, protests around Minneapolis have caught nationwide attention as the city shows open defiance to a federal immigration crackdown.
When our immigrant neighbors are under attack, what do we do?
But behind the scenes, a quieter, organized resistance has taken shape. Today, our producers Anna Foley and Michael Simon Johnson go on the ground in Minneapolis to capture that effort. And our colleague Charles Homans explains why the city has become ground zero in the fight over the government's deportation strategy.
It's Wednesday, January 21st.
This is Michael Simon Johnson. I'm here with New York Times reporter Charlie Homans. And we are... What neighborhood are we in, actually?
So this is the Lynn Lake area of Minneapolis. We're in South Minneapolis, and it's named after this intersection that we're standing at, actually, which is Lyndale Avenue. and Lake Street. It's kind of the place where sort of the recent waves of immigrants and settled refugees and the Minneapolis of the kind of white liberal urban culture intersect. And those groups have been kind of have been brought together in an interesting way by this ice crack down in the city. I mean, the thing that's different about Minneapolis compared to Chicago or Los Angeles or other cities that have been targets of this crackdown so far is that it's a very small city. It doesn't have that many people in it. And the number of federal agents that have been sent here is really quite huge.
And what I've been hearing just talking to people here is that, you know, in the last few weeks, people who are potential targets of these raids have really felt like they can't leave their homes at all. And so that has kind of become a focus of the organizing of a lot of these local organizations and businesses, which are kind of gathering donations.
So we're about to go to one of these places. Tell me about what this place is and then what its role is in this kind of network that you're talking about.
Sure. So we're going to go to Smitten Kitten, which is a sex shop on Lindale here. And it's been playing a very interesting role, kind of what's been happening here lately. Okay. Well, let's go inside.
So I'm Ann. I work here at the Smitten Kitten for the past two years. During the regular day, we are an adult store. We really focus on trying to give people accurate information about sex education. We also have stuff for every gender ever.
Well, it is very striking that this is like a sex shop, a really nice one, beautifully laid out, but also at the front there's this... Mutual aid. Mutual aid.
What events led to the protests in Minneapolis against ICE?
Yeah, we're always doing mutual aid, but we just expanded it and imploded ourselves with mutual aid, basically.
Well, let's go downstairs.
Yeah, sweet.
I'm now walking past the sci-fi fantasy dildo section. This is a lot.
Yeah. It was 11 boxes, which was kind of crazy.
Lots of boxes of diapers, lots of boxes of formula, wipes.
That is a huge problem.
Just so I have a sense. How many people have come by today, for example, to like pick up some... Hundreds of people.
Hundreds? Because I was getting anxiety. Probably a thousand people over the past couple of days.
But the goods are moving.
Like, you're not like... We're not sitting on it. It's gotta go. Yeah.
Yeah.
It is insane the volume and the urgency that we have been meeting people with. They will be bringing their papers into the store. They are afraid.
How is the community organizing to resist ICE actions?
They are leaving their house to come here to get resources, even though they are at risk for being picked up by ICE. And they're all wanting to prove to me the validity of that. And I'm like, I really don't care.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–3:46
2
What events led to the protests in Minneapolis against ICE?
3:46–4:49
3
How is the community organizing to resist ICE actions?
4:49–13:09
4
What role does the Smitten Kitten play in the local mutual aid network?
13:09–20:30
5
How are residents responding to the fear of ICE raids?
20:30–34:04
6
What changes occurred in the community after the shooting of Renee Good?
34:04–35:44
Speakers
6 identifiedMore from The Daily
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