MVF friends,
I often wonder what Dr. King (or Ella Baker) would be doing if they were alive today.
We’ve all witnessed the escalation of harm and violence in Minnesota after the ICE killing of Renne Nicole Good, and the outpouring of solidarity, protection, and protest in response. MVF partner organizations, grassroots allies, and residents are peacefully organizing to stop the increased chaos and cruelty sown by ICE. They are carrying on the legacy of creative, strategic, nonviolent civil disobedience.
In the freezing cold of the Deep North, against all odds, they are winning.
Here’s what MVF partners are doing and how you can help.
Photo: ISAIAH and others – protest and rally against ICE presence in Minnesota and in memory of Renee Good
How are MVF partners protecting Minnesotans (and all communities) from ICE?
Five big ways:
1. Neighborhood Observers
Unidos MN is running Monarca, an immigrant-defense hotline (now fielding one call every minute) and rapid-response program that has now trained over 26,000 Minnesotans to observe, document, and respond to ICE presence throughout the state. Anecdotally, we are hearing that everywhere ICE goes, they are being followed by 5-10 cars, surrounded by whistle-blowing observers, struggling to meet quotas, seeming demoralized, and are increasingly deploying to less populous areas to avoid the resistance.
2. Continuous Public Protests
ISAIAH, Unidos MN, and others are mobilizing faith communities and residents of all backgrounds to hold vigils, rallies, and peaceful mass demonstrations — to keep ICE cruelty front and center in the public consciousness, paint a clear moral contrast, and grow a powerful drumbeat of opposition to Trump’s authoritarian overreach.
3. Pressuring Corporations to Withhold Cooperation
Over 100 faith leaders sat in at Target’s national headquarters in Minneapolis and are now slated to meet with the CEO on Thursday. Customers are clogging the lines at Home Depot buying and returning ice scrapers, and are buying and returning salt from Target, complaining that “it doesn’t melt ICE.” As Minnesota-based, friend-of-MVF-organizer Laura Flynn recently shared, “Pressure campaigns are building on corporations benefitting from ICE contracts (hotels, rental cars, etc.) or that continue to allow ICE activity in their businesses (Target, Home Depot, etc.). To get ICE OUT of Minnesota, we need to move the institutional “pillars” that are upholding this occupation.” View the full list of companies, and take action (in your state!).
4. Mass Civil Resistance
This Friday, over 120 labor, grassroots, and community partners are organizing a massive statewide “day of non-violent moral action”: No work, no school, no shopping, and a peaceful mass demonstration, all to focus the state’s (and the entire nation’s) attention on the moral repugnance and illegality of ICE’s actions, peeling away moral, political, and economic support from the agency.
5. Drafting Our National Playbook
MVF’s Minnesota partners’ work is a blueprint for action nationwide: “If they come to your city, do what Minnesota did.” We know the escalation in Minnesota is an attempt to intimidate the rest of the country. MVF staff are checking in with organizers across the country, seeing how we can rally in solidarity with our Minnesota neighbors while replicating and adapting their strategies locally.
Already, MVF partners everywhere are on it, from participating in over 1,000 “ICE Out for Good” events to MVF partner Somos Siembra and their allies’ innovative effort to organize “4th Amendment businesses” (which MN organizers have adopted) and recent victory in pushing Avelo Airlines to stop deportation flights.
Photo Credit: IYKYK
What can MVF supporters do right now to help?
1. Donate
At the request of our Minnesota partners, MVF has created a special Rapid Response Fund to support crucial organizing across the state — organizing that will have huge national repercussions in our fight to reverse authoritarianism.
You can contribute now using this special link, or, for donations above $10,000, by visiting this page. All funds will be earmarked for and regranted to Minnesota partners — in a strategic and ecumenical way — with the guidance of organizers on the ground.
(Note: If you’re making an offline gift, make sure to include “Rapid Response” in the memo line and/or email your MVF liaison or advisor@movementvoterfund.org to let us know the funds are incoming for this purpose.)
2. Get Involved in Minnesota
Join this Friday’s statewide day of action — no work, no school, no shopping. Learn more about how to organize your workplace or school to participate, and how to demand that ICE-enabling corporations withdraw their support and stand on the side of justice and civil rights for all.
3. Take Action Locally
Join the campaign to pressure corporations to withdraw cooperation from ICE! Go to our Minnesota partners’ Corporate Toolkit, use their social media posts, and add your name to sign-on letters for Target, Home Depot, Enterprise, Hilton, and Delta. Then, use this toolkit to turn your local Target store (or any local business!) into a “4th Amendment Workplace” that protects employees and customers from unconstitutional entry by federal agents.
Thank you for reading… and for all that you are doing, both within and outside of MVF, to help our country navigate this challenging time. Dr. King, Ella Baker, and millions of unsung organizing ancestors throughout the ages would be proud.
With love for our country and hope for the future,
Billy Wimsatt, MVF Executive Director
(On behalf of the MVF team)
p.s. – I’d like to leave you with these powerful words being sung right now by hundreds on the streets of Minneapolis – watch this beautiful short clip (turn the sound on!) if you want to fill your cup and maybe also get moved to tears:
Hold on,
Hold on,
My dear one,
Here comes the dawn
