Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
wattWearing sunglasses and a scarf covering his face, Armed ICE agents Get out of the SUV, approach the vehicle and tell activist If they continued to follow him, they would be arrested.
“This will be your last warning,” he said. peer agenthis face was also covered, and he started filming us on his phone.
“You impede our operations,” he continued, adding as an afterthought, “and traffic.”
Will Stancil, 40, a local civil rights attorney, responded calmly: “I have a constitutional right to follow you. I’m not blocking traffic.”
Stancil is one of a growing network of “ICE Commuters,” a large volunteer network of private citizens minneapolis. They gave up weeks of their lives to patrol the streets and monitoring the conduct of federal law enforcement as the crackdown becomes increasingly lethal.
In the background inside his car, volunteers chattered through the Rapid Response Hotline, a joint safety phone that functions like a public radio. They compiled information on the whereabouts and movements of some 3,000 ICE agents and border agents currently deployed in the Midwestern city.
This is dangerous work.
Just last weekend, ICU nurse Alex Pretti, 37, shot to death two people on the street border patrol agent According to a preliminary review, the incident occurred after he intervened to help two women.
His death shocked the nation and was followed by the fatal shooting Renee Good, 37, poet and mother of three, was discovered by ICE agents earlier this month. She is also a legal observer, city leaders said. (Under the First Amendment, citizens have the right to film law enforcement officers as they do their work, as long as they do not interfere.)
The shootings, filmed from multiple angles, sparked nationwide protests and outrage. Adding fuel to the fire came when government officials initially tried to label the pair “domestic terrorists.”
That hasn’t stopped volunteers from continuing to document the actions of ICE agents and their arrests—what volunteers prefer to call “kidnappings.”
“This is important so we can alert the families of those who were taken and make sure they don’t just disappear,” explained another “ICE commuter” on another patrol. She asked only to reveal the codename “Blue Flame.”
“That’s why, over the past six months, we have established a homegrown 911-style emergency response system,” she continued.
Thousands of people are now participating in this decentralized network. Most knew each other only by made-up call signs and feared infiltration and retaliation from federal authorities.
“We also want to frustrate ICE’s efforts and demoralize them,” Blue Flame added, explaining that it has been successful with large-scale raids becoming less frequent.
She parked her car at the entrance to a mobile home park in the city’s northeast that has been hit several times in recent months but not in recent weeks.
She explained that this is a “stationary” patrol, where volunteers guard an area to serve as both observers and a deterrent to any ICE activity.
“The experience of real fascism, which I had only read about in history books, was shocking,” she said through tears. “We live in a dictatorship.”
Last month, the world was shocked by disturbing images of ICE agents violently arresting people they alleged were in the country illegally, including children as young as five as well as U.S. citizens.
The level of violence has reached a level that even Republicans are shocked and, oddly enough, The National Rifle Association criticized what was happening. The National Rifle Association is outraged trump card The government apparently blamed Preeti’s killing on his legal possession of a gun.
trump cardWorry about the expected losses in the upcoming November midterm elections initially softened his remarks. Apparently to ease tensions, he sent gregory bovino homethe Border Patrol commander and the public image of the mass deportations.
The president has sent a border czar to replace him Tom Homan to the city. Homan is a Trump ally with decades of experience migrant Policies of Republican and Democratic administrations.
Thursday morning, Homan spoke to reporters for the first time but pointedly avoided the shooting.
Instead, he insisted the administration would not abandon the president’s immigration crackdown, adding that Trump would likely reduce the number of immigration enforcement officers. minnesota Only state and local officials cooperated.
He did admit to the mistake.
“I don’t want to hear that everything done here is perfect. Nothing is perfect,” he said, warning that protesters, including ICE commuters, could face consequences if they interfere with federal officers.
That didn’t stop activists like Stancil.
As he was patrolling, he noticed the ICE agent sitting in an innocuous compact SUV.
He followed the vehicle and rounded the corner. There, other “commuters” wearing high-visibility vests patrolling on foot received the same intel, picked it up and began alerting neighbors to their presence by whistling.
Passing cars started honking their horns. Several people shouted “ICE.”
Stancil explained that locals were particularly concerned because the vehicle was located near an elementary school.
It was school time and a third group of volunteers were stationed outside to protect the children as we drove by.
Stancil said there have been instances of immigrant families being detained while sending their children to school, leaving many parents afraid to risk going to school.
Volunteers began caring for children, delivering groceries to families who were afraid to leave their homes, and even walking dogs.
“ICE has been here for weeks. They’ve destroyed this city. They’re destroying our economy,” said an exhausted Stancil. He has done so for 21 consecutive days and has been tear gassed and pepper sprayed.
“As an immigration operation, the cost-benefit here makes no sense…it only makes sense as a political intimidation.”
Consensus among volunteers and activists independent What is being said is that this is less about immigration and more about punishment minneapolis.
Many residents believed it was retaliation for the protests that swept the country in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd during Trump’s first term. The 46-year-old black man was killed in Minneapolis after police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes.
Stancil added that Minneapolis also has the largest Somali population outside of Somalia, something Trump has mentioned several times.
“I think they have a deep-seated ideological belief that places like Minneapolis have to be brutalized and that our non-white neighbors have to be taken away,” he said.
His companion, Brandon McCollam, 30, also a volunteer, added: “Trump himself called it revenge.”
Back at the mobile home park, Blue Flame was greeted by another volunteer who she didn’t recognize but was fielding similar calls. He said he would be watching the neighborhood from his car.
She believes border controls are not going away and that they are here to stay for the long term. She fears similar large-scale deployments will occur in other cities. This means volunteer networks need to stay motivated.
“We need to think of ICE resistance as a part-time job moving forward,” she said solemnly.
“I’ve never experienced anything like this in my life. It feels historic. We’re living history.”