If you have paid attention to the news over the past month and a half, you have most likely heard about the ICE occupation in the Minneapolis and Saint Paul area of Minnesota, especially after the recent shootings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti. For anyone out of state, you might think of Minnesota in a different light, whether it’s with this or even earlier with the George Floyd killing along with the protests and riots that followed.
Why I wrote this piece is because I want to say that despite some things you see on the news, not everything you see is true about my home state. While I have not seen every event that has happened related to ICE in Minnesota, I want to discuss what I have seen with my own eyes and my thoughts about what has been going on in my own perspective.
People will say that Minnesota, especially the Twin Cities and Saint Paul is a violent place. While there is some violence that happens in the area, the Twin Cities is a beautiful place. I go to about 20 Minnesota Twins games a year and have seen nothing out of the ordinary around the Twins stadium, Target Field which is located in downtown Minneapolis.
ICE began to target Minnesota, especially the Twin Cities area as part of its “operation metro surge” to get rid of the illegal immigrants that are criminals especially in Democratic-run sanctuary cities. Minneapolis is also targeted because of the fraud related to the Quality Learning Center which misused government funds.
Because of this, our community has been under siege. People are scared to go out because of the fear of getting arrested and deported. My mom said that when she and her friend went to Minneapolis for breakfast one weekend, that a lot of places which are owned by people of other ethnicities or immigrants were closed. Schools have closed because of violent encounters with ICE in the past month.
The way that ICE puts everyone in danger because of how they operate, and that anyone can impersonate them. My house had a person come up to our house on a random day in January, he looked like he was a random solicitor but when he covered our ring camera and also had a notification that ICE was in our neighborhood from our ring neighbor’s feature. It is unconfirmed but based on what our friend’s contact from our town municipality said related to that person, it could’ve either been a plain clothes ICE agent or an impostor.
Our encounter with that person is just another example of why no one is safe with ICE. Our community also was rocked when the reports that there were two killings related to ICE happened. The Renee Nicole Good shooting sparked a lot of the protests that are currently happening and I was in Minneapolis when Alex Pretti’s shooting happened. Luckily the event I was at was Twinsfest at Target Field so it wasn’t near where Pretti was killed but the Twins had to cancel the fanfest an hour early so we had to leave early to make sure we got home safely.
What I have seen is that the Twin Cities as a whole aren’t letting ICE fully take control of the area. On almost every overpass that is above highways anywhere in the Twin Cities, people are holding signs protesting ICE. My family’s ring account has been getting overwhelmed with notifications from the neighbor’s feature that there is ICE in the area to let people in the community know. And people aren’t afraid of the brisk winter temperatures to protest the way ICE has been operating.
My one message that I want to say is ICE says they are going after the dangerous criminals. So do that, do not go after the families that are trying to start a new life here. There is nothing illegal about trying to find a safe and happy life.
