For the Love of God, Get ICE Out of Minnesota
Standing in community with fellow faith leaders, I felt in my bones the contagious courage in the face of ICE’s intimidation, contempt, and deadly violence.
Alex Pretti was shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis Saturday morning. Videos show that Pretti, who was present as an observer to ICE’s ongoing brutality, was wrestled to the ground while trying to help another person who was being shoved by ICE agents. He then was shot several times and killed. Another death at the hands of ICE in Minnesota.
The killing happened just hours after I left the city. I was one of tens of thousands of people who braved the -10 degree temperatures on the streets of Minneapolis last week to demand that Immigration and Customs Enforcement get out of Minnesota. I decided to go when I learned of a call from MARCH (Multifaith Antiracism, Change & Healing or MARCH), one of the several powerful interfaith networks in Minnesota responding to this moment. Within two days, the gathering was oversubscribed. As one of the organizers told the huge crowd that assembled on Thursday morning in a sanctuary for singing, prayers and testimony, “We expected 200 people. Over 1,000 of you responded.”
My days in Minnesota last week already seem like a long time ago, now that another violent death by ICE has horrified and outraged a city that was already bereft. I went to Minnesota to be present and to learn from those experiencing firsthand the intimidation and violence that ICE is inflicting on immigrant communities and whole neighborhoods. Minneapolis is under siege, and those of us who were visitors were quickly introduced to the horrific reality on the ground — and how it is affecting the daily lives of people.
Yet equally powerful was to be welcomed into the extraordinary community of everyday people who are organizing a response. As much as Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Trump administration would like to paint them as dangerous and violent, Renee Good and now Alex Pretti were part of a beautiful, intentional, and courageous network of people dedicated to protecting their neighbors who are under attack. This community is made up of many people from different walks of life, including faith leaders from all different traditions and backgrounds joined by common commitment to welcoming the stranger and loving their neighbors.
The networks that exist now are not new. They have their roots in other moments of violence against the community. On Friday morning, I went on a pilgrimage from George Floyd Square, where George Floyd was murdered by a police officer, to the location where Good was killed by an ICE agent — not far from where the most recent killing took place. Faith-rooted organizing in Minneapolis goes deep, with a history of responding to community trauma and rupture. We were there to understand the harm that has been done and to appreciate and learn from the resilience and creativity of the resistance.
When our bus returned from the pilgrimage, we were ushered into the hall of a church that was hosting us because ICE agents were reported to be nearby with guns drawn. We stayed in the church for an hour, until we were given the all-clear signal. For us, that underscored the daily violent attacks in Minnesota neighborhoods. We later learned that ICE was apparently trailing our pilgrimage before attacking two observers whose faces were lacerated when ICE agents broke their windows. The women were saved only when other observers approached, and the ICE agents retreated to their cars.
While in Minneapolis, we were witness to so many ways that the community is showing up for neighbors. Congregations are helping distribute much-needed food and resources to families who no longer feel safe leaving their homes. Faith groups are organized into patrols, armed with whistles and spiritual power to follow ICE and warn their neighbors when ICE is present, an activity completely allowed by the U.S. Constitution, but which now is a life-threatening act. People are also pressuring businesses and government to show up for their communities and resist what seems most accurately to be described as an invading force by the federal government.
I took part in a “sing in” at Target, a store that is much beloved in Minnesota as it has its origins here. Yet ,these days it has remained silent as ICE uses its parking lots as staging areas and detained people inside at least one of its stores. I was one of the clergy members asked to offer a prayer for the leadership of Target, and I added a prayer for the senators who are about to vote on whether to fund ICE’s bloated budget. Other actions took place all across the city, including a sit-in at U.S. Bank, where 100 clergy were successful in their demand to meet with the CEO, and at the airport, where 100 of my fellow clergy members knelt in prayer to protest the flights that ICE uses to take family members away from family members and neighbors away from neighbors. All 100 of those clergy members were taken away and arrested.
One of the greatest tools of authoritarians is to keep individuals and communities isolated from one another. And all the rhetoric and actions of this administration’s attack on the people of Minnesota is aimed at pitting communities and neighbors against one another. Yet, during my time in Minneapolis, I saw community and faith leaders singing, dancing, organizing, and holding one another in their arms and in prayer. And I felt in my bones the contagious courage that so many individuals exhibited, even in the face of ICE’s intimidation, contempt, and deadly violence.
We were led through George Floyd Square by a woman who said something that has stayed with and helps me understand those people like Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and all the people who are showing up together right now: “Our neighbors are those we have chosen to be in community with.” In my faith tradition, Jesus said clearly that we are to love our neighbors. Choosing community and loving my neighbor — these are the lessons I take with me from Minnesota.
In America today, we simply cannot say that we love our neighbor while tolerating ICE’s cruelty and abuse. It is time for people of faith and for all Americans to choose love and solidarity over ICE’s brutality. And, for the love of God, it is time for ICE to get out of Minnesota and all our communities.
Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush is the president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance.
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"beautiful, intentional and courageous network of people"
Thank you for acting in Minnesota and for acting in solidarity with so many other people of good heart.
Your words sustain and give hope.
Thank you for your report and your example. We need all clergy to speak out now like this.