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There has been a lot of talk surrounding Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s recent activities in Minnesota, leaving people wondering what day-to-day interactions are really like for people on-the-ground. Minnesota state Senator Erin Maye Quade shared a video on TikTok detailing her personal experience – describing how current omnipresent ICE activity is affecting daily life within her community.
Quade Describes the Situation
She starts her video by noting that she lives in the suburbs, not Minneapolis, and that ICE operations are happening across the entire state, not just within urban areas. Quade states that ICE agents are not searching for specific individuals, but rather looking for what she calls “kidnappings of opportunity” – describing how agents are present in tremendous numbers and waiting for opportunities to swarm and kidnap black, brown, and asian individuals that they encounter indiscriminately. She notes also that the majority of individuals being taken are US citizens, permanent residents, and others who have a lawful status of some sort.
‘Their only crime is being black, brown, or asian, and near an ICE agent at any given random time.’
Quade describes seeing checkpoints being set up at the entrance/exit to certain neighborhoods where people are expected to produce ‘papers’, door-to-door abductions where people are detained if they appear to be black, brown, or asian, schools closing because children and their parents are being targeted at bus stops and pickup/drop-off lines, raids in restaurants and stores where the entire staff is abducted, and abandoned cars littering the streets.
“There is no place that this (violent kidnapping) isn’t happening, and it is happening all the time every single day… There are more federal agents in Minnesota than there are local law enforcement for the ten largest police forces combined.”
How are Minnesotans Responding?
Quade then goes on to describe how Minnesotans are responding. She describes grandparents carrying around whistles in their cars to warn others of ICE presence, parents patrolling bus stops and forming ‘safety circles’ around schools, and the organization of massive food donation and delivery infrastructure.
She Ends With a Warning
Quade closes by telling viewers to do what they can to support Minnesota, but also urges that now is also the time for people to begin organizing in their own communities. Her parting note is a warning – Minnesota is the test case.
‘There may be people outside of Minnesota who are thinking… ‘this is something I won’t experience or I won’t see’. I’m here to dispel that myth for you… Minnesota is the test case… this will come to other states.’
