The Invasion

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PRENOTE:  This is the third post on ICE in Minnesota.  The previous posts, on January 7 and 13 are included from about 24 hours ago when I posted my personal observations about ICE in my city.  I posted on what I was actually personally experiencing (and indeed am still experiencing), but I knew the rest of the story as well through media and people like yourself.  Related and relevant was a January 12 post related to Greenland.

But our rapid transition to authoritarian state alarms me even more than 9-11-01, which was the point that led to my active involvement in the peace movement.  We dismiss the problem now at our own great future peril as a nation.

Specifically for residents of Woodbury:

Overnight, two friends in my town, contemporaries in age, who I know well, one for a long time, the other more recent, both highly credible, separately sent the two following posts which focus on this area – my County and my area east of St. Paul.  What they share, I’ve heard from others, and indeed are no secret around town.  National news verified by local news and front page in this mornings Minnesota Star Tribune, is the announcement that six local DOJ attorneys, one of them a long term U.S. attorney in Minneapolis, have resigned, presumably because of disagreement with how the DOJ is handling the investigation following the death of  Renee Good.  There is plenty of open source news on this, so if interested just access on line.

If you think “it can’t happen where I am”, open your eyes and follow Minneapolis-St. Paul.  It is happening.  Following are the two shared posts.,  both from senior citizen women who I would consider activists.  Take the time to read these, and get on the court where you live.  This is not a ‘toy soldiers’ game.

FRIEND ONE: Criminy, [the newspaper]  said I could share that.  [from St. Paul Pioneer Press]

May Township resident Patricia Isaacs was among dozens of residents of Washington County who gathered Tuesday morning to implore the county board to do all they can to stop any possible plans for an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in the county.
“My father was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home,” Isaacs said. “There’s an entire branch of my family that didn’t survive World War II. It was drummed into my head since childhood that we must never forget. Well, I’ve never forgotten. And we can’t forget. If we allow ICE to build a facility here that is essentially a concentration camp, we are complicit.”
More than 20 people spoke expressing concerns about a possible ICE detention facility on Hudson Road in Woodbury. Another 10 people submitted written comments.
Washington County Board Chair Karla Bigham said no one on the five-member county board is in favor of an ICE detention center. County and city officials previously have said they have not been notified of plans for a detention center and the property owner in question says they have not been contacted either.
“We can’t afford it financially,” Bigham said. “We can’t afford it from a public health perspective. We can’t afford it from a safety perspective. We cannot afford it from a Constitutional perspective. We cannot afford it from a due process perspective, and we darn well cannot afford it from a humanitarian perspective.”
Bigham told audience members that the board members would be “discussing and deliberating” the best response. “What I can guarantee you is that we will not be quiet,” she said. “We will not be complacent. This is about protecting our freedoms and having ICE in our communities violating the Constitution and due process does not make our communities any more safe.”
Bigham said the board plans to send a letter to the county’s federal delegation expressing concerns about the possible detention center. The letter, which is expected to be finalized next week, asks federal officials to consider the public health and safety risks and community impact.
“Beyond the local safety and compatibility concerns, such a facility would place substantial additional strain on county services, including law enforcement, public health, transportation, and other departments, at a time when resources are already stretched to meet state and federal mandates,” a draft of the letter states.
Carol Iwata, of Afton, a third-generation Japanese-American, told the county board that she now carries a photograph of her passport with her everywhere she goes, “just like St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her.”
Iwata’s mother’s family was incarcerated in a concentration camp during World War II, she said.
“My mother and her siblings were (U.S.) citizens, as were many of the people who were incarcerated,” Iwata said. “My family has experienced race-based unlawful detentions before, although we have seen from the awful tragedy of Renee Good that race doesn’t protect you from ICE.”
Janet Carlson, of Lake Elmo, said her family was forcibly removed by the Army in Seattle, Wash., in April of 1942 and incarcerated in Hunt, Idaho, in the Minidoka concentration camp.
“Today’s ICE actions bring all kinds of memories for me, even though I was not alive at the time,” she said. “These people were incarcerated without due process for two years, so this seems very similar.”
Carlson expressed concerns about the safety of the students at schools in the area of the possible detention center and said immigrants are key to the county’s economic development.
“Lake Elmo and Oakdale are on the list for the fastest-growing cities in Washington County, and that means we need construction workers,” she said. “People of color are heavily represented in the construction industry, and if we want to continue growing our community, we have to make sure that those people feel welcome and safe to work in Woodbury.”
Stillwater resident Nick Gorski said his father, a World War II veteran who fought in Northern Italy with the 10th Mountain Brigade, would be horrified by what is happening today.
“I’m glad he’s not alive to see what’s going on right now,” Gorski said. “The people he fought against are calling the shots, and it’s up to us to stand up.”
Nicole Sauer, of Woodbury, said she has been impressed with the level of trust that the Woodbury Police Department has built with the city. “I don’t want that to be ruined,” she said.
“Right now, it’s really about coming up with creative solutions and being able to act fast,” said Commissioner Michelle Clasen, who represents Woodbury.
“We don’t want to be complacent or complicit,” Clasen said. “(We) want to work with constituents, so that we can do whatever is possible to tell ICE that you are not welcome in our community. You are not welcome to have an ICE detention center. We want people who follow the laws and abide by the laws.”
Commissioner Bethany Cox, who has two young children, became emotional talking about how she, too, is “changing the way she moves around her community.”
“I’m sorry,” Cox said. “The trauma that this is causing in our communities is the part that I’m struggling with the most. Federal laws need to be followed, but there can be a way that it can be done that doesn’t hurt us as a community.”
Jennifer Vitale currently lives in Woodbury, but she was born and raised in Stillwater. She said she wanted to give the board “the parents’ perspective of what’s going on.”
Vitale said she has to tell her daughter and son-in-law that if they see ICE agents when they are at a store with their child they need to “turn around and come home — and that’s happened.”
“Parents are now thinking about where they can go and when they can go there,” she said. “They’re on the lookout for what’s around them. If there are ICE around, they turn around and go home. … Families in Woodbury are changing how we live in our community, and I think you guys should know that.”
Many of those in the audience on Tuesday were members of St. Croix Valley Indivisible, Afton Indivisible and Indivisible Twin Cities, groups working to “stand up for our democracy and the rights of our immigrant neighbors,” said Martha Winslow, a St. Mary’s Point resident who is the leader of St. Croix Valley Indivisible.
“Honestly, to call these facilities detention centers is a euphemism,” Winslow told the board. “I ask you to get out ahead on this thing. Call and write letters to anyone you can think that may have the power to stop this. Determine what powers you have to stop this before a specific proposal comes before you.”
Members of the Indivisible groups, along with officials from Woodbury and Washington County and members of the county’s immigrant communities, will hold a press conference at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Woodbury Central Park just prior to the 7:30 p.m. Woodbury City Council meeting at Woodbury City Hall, Winslow said.
On Monday, U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem demanding that DHS and ICE immediately cease all operations in Minnesota. McCollum also wrote that she has been contacted by constituents and public officials concerned about reports that ICE is “actively soliciting warehouse space to hold as many as 1,500 detainees in Woodbury.”
McCollum’s letter asks Noem if ICE is in fact seeking to acquire a warehouse in Woodbury and, if so, what the address is and the estimated cost of developing the facility. She also seeks documentation about public health and sanitation standards.
“According to comments by ICE acting director Todd M. Lyons at a border conference in April, the Trump administration’s goal is to deport immigrants like Amazon moves packages: ‘Like Prime, but with human beings,” McCollum wrote. “Not only is this plan dehumanizing, it fails to account for the fact that structures designed for storage and shipping are not fit for human habitation, because they lack adequate ventilation and temperature controls.”

FRIEND TWO: Not like you needed more on this – I deleted the name of the contributor – and I hereby thank her/him.
AND  . . . let me know if you are tired of these, or whatever

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Life is NOT a competition, WE are better together.
Remember, I’m pulling for you. We’re all in this together.
(Red Green, Canadian Philosopher)

Dear all,

What follows below the starred line is from a person who works in a local Twin Cities hospital. Everything is consistent with what I’m experiencing and seeing. The “ICE is not welcome” signs are up everywhere in South Minneapolis. In addition to the listing of the things the community is doing, these items are of note:

– The state of Minnesota is suing to block the ICE deployment.

– Some of us are learning to become observers at the immigration courts.

– The HHS budget (where ICE gets it funding) is up for discussion when the continuing resolution expires as of 3o Jan 2026.

 

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“Friends outside MN, you need to know what is happening here. Everyone knows that ICE shot and killed a woman here on Wednesday. But that’s not the only thing that’s going on.

-ICE agents are cruising areas with immigrant-owned businesses, and kidnapping patrons and employees alike. Yesterday they abducted two US citizen employees at a suburban Target, one who was begging them to allow him to go get his passport to show them.
– ICE is going door to door in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods, asking residents where their immigrant neighbors live. Read that again. If it sounds like something out of your high school history textbook, that’s because it is.
– ICE is targeting schools and school buses. They pepper sprayed teenagers and abducted two school staff members at the high school up the street from me on Weds. Police are literally escorting school buses to ensure children can get to school and home safely. The Minneapolis Public Schools have moved to virtual learning for the next 4 weeks because it’s unsafe for children or teachers to physically come to school.
– They are targeting hospitals and clinics. Patients are scared and are canceling their appointments or just not showing up. Kids are missing their checkups and vaccines, folks aren’t getting their cancer care, etc.
– They are smashing windows in cars and homes.
– ICE is increasingly picking up Native Americans—again, targeting folks based on skin color alone.
– They are arresting and beating legal observers. A friend of a friend had her arm broken yesterday. Folks are showing up at local hospitals, brought in in ICE custody, with severe injuries that are absolutely inconsistent with mechanism of injury reported by ICE. (Think: patient appears to have been beaten unconscious, while ICE agent says he slipped and fell.)

I can’t emphasize enough that these ICE agents do not have warrants. There are 2,000+ agents here and they are simply hunting for anyone that’s not white. It doesn’t matter if you’re a citizen or a green card holder, they will kidnap you first and ask questions later.

But the community is fighting back.
– Protests are happening every day.
– Community groups have been leading know-your-rights sessions for months, often to packed venues.
– Whistles are being distributed by the thousands, carried on keychains and worn on coat zippers, always at the ready to be blown in warning if ICE is spotted.
– Drivers are following ICE vehicles, blaring their horns in warning.
– Businesses are locking their doors even while open to keep employees and customers safe. As I type this, I’m standing guard at the locked door of our neighborhood burrito joint while I wait for my takeout order, so the employees can focus on their jobs. The place is packed with neighbors supporting this small business.
– Anti-ICE signs are posted everywhere. The community is making it crystal clear that ICE is not welcome here.
– Parents and neighbors are standing guard outside schools, organizing carpools, and escorting kids to and from school on foot.
– Parents of kids in Spanish-immersion daycare (there are a LOT of these daycares here!) are keeping their kids home so the teachers don’t have to take the risk of coming to work.
– Churches and community groups are holding fundraisers to buy and deliver groceries to families who don’t feel safe leaving home.
– Mutual aid money is going out to folks who can’t make rent because they can’t work or because a breadwinner was abducted, or who need a warm place to stay after their home’s windows were smashed.

THAT is what is happening here. This fight is ongoing and it’s horrifying to watch. But we are not backing down. To my friends in other cities and states, don’t think for a minute that this won’t happen in your town. It will. Be ready. Learn from us, as we have learned from Portland and Chicago and New York. Fight back. Don’t let us get to the last line of Martin Niemoller’s poem.”

COMMENTS (more below)

from Carol: Kudos to your FRIEND TWO for the terrific post.

I want to add, re ICE going to doors and asking about neighbors, that a woman in St. Paul said they came to her door asking if she knew of any neighbors who are Hmong or Asian(!)  (I thought this was supposed to be about Somalis…)  The Hmong have been here for 40 years.

An update on my previous story about the man from Venezuela (a friend of our friend from Peru) who was stopped by ICE while delivering Amazon packages before Christmas.  He had a work permit, and had requested an asylum hearing.  He ended up in a prison in Texas – and is still there.
Meanwhile, our Peruvian friend, who lives in a large apartment complex in Eagan, said ICE has been going through their building knocking on doors.  He just received his green card, but says he realizes it won’t help him.  His sister has been living with him and attending college on a student visa.  He said she was so scared she went back to Peru.
This is absolutely brutal.  And to those who say, well, Minnesotans just need to get with the game and stop “disrespecting” law enforcement (and they won’t get shot), I say that I am SO proud of Minnesotans right now.  We understand legitimate immigration enforcement.  And we also understand plain thuggery.
Speaking of being “disrespectful,” I understand that’s Trump’s latest excuse for the murder of Ms. Good.  That’s rich, coming from a man who calls others vile names each and every day.  And who pardoned all the Jan. 6th rioters who beat on police officers and trashed the Capitol – inc. smearing feces on the walls.  The last thing Renee Good said before her death was “I’m not mad at you” to her killer.  His last comment as he shot her: “F**ing bitch.”

from Mary Kay:

It’s hard to describe what we feel. It’s a horrible sight to see this is what is in the streets of America.
Hoping the elections change all of this, and until then, hoping republicans will see the wrong in all of it. I live in maga country and have neighbors and family who are hard to convince djt is not for America.
Thanks for your informative  and eye-opening emails!
As always,

from Mary:  Just some additions.  U of MN is closing public hours so you need active student ID to enter building.

  Teachers are choosing offering hybrid zoom classes for students option…what alto of extra work,,,
[at Medical appointment] went right in because few patients are showing up.
Nursing desk has poster telling ICE they must meet hospital administrator

from Brian: Thanks Dick!  I agree this is all very important, and very dangerous. Our thoughts are with you and your neighbors, our actions too.

from Larry: Good posts, Dick..thanks for your work.