When Minneapolis pastor Ashley Harness-Jimenez joined us last week for our virtual event Moms For Good, she wanted to make sure we knew that the brutal ICE crackdown in her city isn’t the only story. There are so many Minnesotans standing up for their neighbors — like moms who are sharing food and tea, helping journalists over snowbanks, or just offering free hugs.
Called To Act, a TroubleNation group in Minnesota, has been organizing protests and talking to local business leaders about becoming a 4th Amendment business or community space. Another TN group, Twisted Resisters, said, “Many of us marched in subzero windchills last Saturday to support our immigrant neighbors and tell ICE to leave. While our outstate community isn’t large, we still had over 500 march on that cold and windy day.”
At the Minneapolis church Iglesia Dios Habla Hoy, volunteers have been packing groceries for their neighbors. “It looks like they're responding to a hurricane catastrophe,” said pastor Sergio Amezcua. “But it is a mental catastrophe what the government is doing to us in Minnesota.”
So far, they’ve delivered 12,000 boxes of groceries in about six weeks. They’re currently packing 1300 boxes a day with the help of around 400 volunteers.
The church purchases the food through donation networks like Second Harvest Heartland, and many families in the community have supported the efforts with monetary donations. Amezcua said they plan to continue for as long as there is a need.
A few miles north, a very different business has been supporting its community in a similar way. Smitten Kitten, a sex shop in Uptown Minneapolis, has been collecting food, diapers, toilet paper, and other necessities for their neighbors who are too afraid to leave the house.
They’ve also been leveraging their social media platform to raise money to directly support families in need. “I’m reporting live from Diaper Mountain,” begins one post. “Usually we’re an adult store, but today we’re gonna be pushing Venmos of families that need resources immediately.”
In December, they raised money for Isuroon, a nonprofit that supports Somali women in Minnesota. In just one day, they raised $15,000. And now that ICE is in their city, Smitten Kitten has been doubling down on their efforts.
“We’re just trying to make sure that everybody’s fed, every baby has a diaper on them that’s clean, and has baby formula. That’s all we’re trying to do.”
In a city ravaged by ICE (and by literal ice, with temperatures in the -20s today), people are coming together to support their neighbors — from TroubleNation groups to churches to sex shops and everyone in between.
