I just had to write this after what we just experienced. Maybe you will share this in one of this week's stories or maybe in the weekend reader letters. It does not matter. What matters is that people know what is going on here in Minnesota.
I am a person of faith (Roman Catholic, to be precise), fortunate to have a faith community dedicated to justice. ISAIAH is a Minnesota statewide organization composed of churches, mosques and other faith-based organizations. For decades ordinary people of faith have organized around shared values of justice and love, so as to effect real change in our state and the nation.
Recently, we attended an ISAIAH press conference in Richfield, MN, where community members shared their experiences of the ICE presence in Minnesota. It was heartbreaking and angering. We made demands of Target, Inc. (headquartered in Minnesota) to protect their workers. But despite the somber mood, there was an air of joy in the crowd because we were living out our faith values in the service of others, of those who cannot fight for themselves. My family and I left feeling uplifted.
We decided to patronize one of the many Latino restaurants in Richfield for lunch. On the way there, we ran straight into an ICE raid. Right in front of our eyes, a group of masked men grabbed someone off the platform of a major bus stop in the area. In broad daylight. In front of probably 50 people at the gas station and intersection right by the stop. Community members blew whistles, got out their phones and used their voices to both alert others to the danger and to call out what was happening.
It was incredibly frightening. These are things we only read about or see in movies. I literally saw someone kidnapped this afternoon. There was no identification from the men who shoved their victim into a van. In fact, I did not hear them say a word. The whole thing lasted less than a minute. Then they and one of our community members was gone.
We have lost our way as a country. This is not law and order, this is lawlessness. I am hearing multiple reports about similar incidents in other areas of the metro area and state, just today. There is a noticeable uptick in this since the murder (and it WAS murder) of Renee Good. ICE has verbally threatened community members with violence. I saw a video in which an "agent" told a protester, "Did you learn nothing from what happened?" The Constitution is being shredded before our eyes.
This is a five-alarm fire in Minnesota. We are contacting our members of Congress, our state leaders, our city leaders. Please do the same with yours. We need your help!
It is as if the Trumpf administration is doing everything they can to ensure a blue tsunami next November.
