Ways to Help: Getting ICE Out

by Mikola De Roo

Minnesota state map outline with "MN NoICE" caption inside it

Original post date: January 19, 2026; Last updated: February 19, 2026

ICE/CBP escalation, Minnesota, Dec. 2025–late Feb. 2026

CONTENTS: What I’m Hearing • Call Your Reps to Get ICE Out • Boycott & Call ICE’s Corporate Collaborators • Support Local MN & Twin Cities Metro Area Organizations • Monitor Local Media & Grassroots Organizing Info Sources • Get Ready to Support Your Own Community

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT UPDATES: The contextual info under “What I’m Hearing,” below, reflects events and news for about 10 days following the murder of Renee Good on January 7, 2026, in South Minneapolis. Therefore, it predates the incredible ICE Out march and rally that thousands of Minnesotans came out for on January 23, despite frigid temperatures, as well as the murder of Alex Pretti by CBP agents on January 24. In the interest of brevity and expediency, I’m focusing on updating the ways in which people, especially those outside of Minnesota, can help. In our 24/7 all-apocalypse, all-the-time news cycle, a place under siege that was making global headlines three mere weeks ago can drop out of wider public view and attention quickly. This is a reminder that the need for every imaginable form of help in Minnesota remains—and if anything, that need has grown exponentially. This February 12 article, “Lost Wages, Legal Costs Add to Toll for Those Detained in Minnesota ICE Surge,” gives a good snapshot of the economic shockwaves, but here’s the upshot: Between family breadwinners being arrested; the people who are staying home out of fear of being arrested and deported, and therefore not going to work or getting paid; and the businesses that have closed or taken serious financials hits,* people are struggling to obtain food and basic supplies, and families and local businesses can’t pay their rent. Minnesota community members have been pushing city, county, and state electeds for an eviction moratorium and government rental assistance, but so far, those much-needed forms of government support and relief haven’t materialized. Additionally, despite an announced ICE/CPB drawdown last week, community reports on the ground in Minnesota suggest that the siege is far from over; at present, the feds seem every bit a present and dangerous, just applying different tactics (e.g., driving cars with no license plates so they can’t be tracked in grassroots databases) and focusing their attacks more on quieter suburbs around the Twin Cities. (See also “Are There Fewer Federal Agents in Minnesota?“) What all this means for you: While the ways to help on this page are as relevant as they were when I first posted them a month ago, if you’re going to pay attention to one section, let it be “Support Local MN & Twin Cities Metro Area Organizations.” The orgs that are new are labeled as such. Our Midwestern neighbors need our help. You know what to do.

several reasons why many local Twin Cities businesses are hurting:

* because of arrested/deported workers who therefore can no longer go to work * because people are too scared to leave home and go to work * because people are too scared to leave home and support the businesses they usually do * because the businesses themselves are focusing most or all their energy on serving as community mutual aid hubs for free instead of their usual business functions and services * because MN has been under siege by the federal government for months * because because because

Purple protest sign with image of musician Prince and the tag line “DEARLY BELOVED, WE ARE GATHERED HERE TODAY TO DISMANTLE THUS THING CALLED ICE.”

What I’m Hearing

II went to college in Minnesota. I also student taught at a public high school five minutes driving from where Renee Nicole Good was murdered by an ICE agent on January 7, 2026, and from where George Floyd was murdered by a police officer on May 25, 2020. I maintain a lot of local ties to the area, so in addition to following the news and social media closely, I’ve been getting firsthand reports from my Minnesotan friends and loved ones. Here’s some of what has been shared with me:

If you have friends in Minnesota, they’d love to hear from you. Let them know you’re thinking about them. It helps for folks there to know they aren’t alone.

As horrifying as the reports making the national and global headlines are, the situation on the ground every day is worse. Thousands of masked and armed ICE agents, in both marked and unmarked vehicles, are laying daily siege upon the Twin Cities and across the state. The detainments, harassment, violence, and human rights violations are constant and indiscriminate, and people are being targeted using racial profiling, unlawful seizures and arrests, and without warrants and probable cause. No human being, irrespective of immigration status, should be treated the way ICE has treated people everywhere they have shown up, but if anyone has any illusions that these raids are really limited to undocumented people with criminal records and a history of severe and violent offenses: Many people being terrorized, injured, abducted, and detained have no criminal records and are either U.S. citizens or legal residents. As a result, many Minnesota families don’t feel safe sending their children to school or leaving home at all. Student attendance at Twin Cities school districts has decreased sharply, and a number of districts are now offering remote learning. Some businesses are closed, in some cases temporarily and in others permanently, because employees are afraid to come to work and customers are afraid to go out. Since the murder of Renee Nicole Good on January 7, other reported ICE agent activities have included:

  • tear-gassing a family—including 6 children, one of them a 6-month-old baby who needed CPR as a result—in their car
  • patrolling neighborhood schools to detain parents picking up or dropping off their children
  • staking out superstore parking lots in order to arrest people leaving their workplaces
  • surveilling patients at hospitals
  • detaining people at local gas stations (because people need to get out of their vehicles to pump gas)
  • eating meals in local restaurants and then returning hours later to arrest the restaurant staff
  • going door to door, breaking into people’s homes and threatening, assaulting, and detaining residents indiscriminately
  • crashing into the cars of anyone they think might be a legal observer and/or may be watching or following them, smashing the cars’ windows, and cornering and dragging people from their vehicles
  • trying to bribe those they have detained during questioning—offering money or saying they would grant U.S. legal status to undocumented family members of the person being detained in exchange for the names of other undocumented people or the names of people organizing protests
  • arresting children, one only 5 years old, near their homes and on their way to school, and in one instance using a child as bait to try to detain other family members.

NOTE: All of the above incidents have been confirmed by multiple sources, usually a combination of firsthand accounts, reports by credible media, and video. In the interest of focusing this post more on what folks can do to help, I’ve kept the list above limited, but for those who want a more detailed holistic viewpoint about what’s happening every day in Minnesota, check out this extensive post by South Minneapolis resident Luke DeBoer from January 15, 2026. Much of the media coverage has focused on ICE abuse and violence through short, isolated segments of singular incidents, with not a ton of context of analysis. So what’s particularly valuable about DeBoer’s firsthand perspective is that it’s detailed and it uses a holistic lens to shed light on the cumulative impact of these daily sieges. Additionally, everything he reports has been confirmed and verified by documented sources that he cites though footnotes and a really useful and meticulous Google doc with video links. DeBoer’s entire post and sources document are worth reading and spending some time with, but this data point really struck me: “Federal agents in the city [of Minneapolis] now outnumber our local police force nearly 5-to-1.”

Minnesotans are showing up in every way possible to protect their neighbors. In the words of one friend: “I do not know a single person who is not doing something: donating, protesting, driving, etc.” Schools, local businesses, and community organizations have become volunteer donation and distribution hubs for groceries, clothes, baby diapers and formula, and other daily items people need but can’t go get for themselves. Likewise, networks of volunteers are helping to organize and deliver these donations to their neighbors. Whistles are being given out for free so residents can organize and alert one another to ICE raids in their neighborhoods as they are happening. Locals are also protesting ICE daily. Just on Saturday, January 17, when it was -12 degrees out:

A pro-ICE, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim rally led by Jan. 6 rioter Jake Lang failed and was chased out of downtown Minneapolis by local counter-protesters who far outnumbered the right-wing marchers.

The annual South Minneapolis Art Sled Rally took place in Powderhorn Park and featured creative protest art from local activists. (See a few photos below.)

A peaceful group of over 600 Minnesotans marched in the neighborhood where Renee Nicole Good was murdered, as part of a singing resistance action and vigil.

Out-of-state people can help the efforts to get ICE out by calling their reps, supporting local organizations, staying informed, and learning the community tactics that have been effective in the Twin Cities, Chicago, and other cities being hit with ICE raids so they’re prepared.

Call Your Reps to Get ICE Out

Contact every elected official you can think of, starting with your members of Congress, to tell them how unconscionable the deployment of federal troops is—in Minnesota and indeed in all the places ICE sieges are taking place nationwide.

Indivisible and 5 Calls have both posted useful scripts to work from when you make your calls.

Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at 202.224.3121 and follow the prompts to be connected to your local reps.

You can use the links provided here to look up your Representatives by zip code at and Senators by state.

Boycott & Call ICE’s Corporate Collaborators

ICE relies on significant private sector help and cannot function effectively without it, so going after their corporate collaborators and holding them accountable by boycotting their services and products is one of the most effective ways all of us can help. The more financial and public pressure these boycotts mount, the more likely it is that we can force companies to change their practices.

STEP 1: Boycott the corporations working with ICE. This January 6 article in The Nation offers some really useful information on which companies are the worst offender and what to do. This January 21 Truthout article also details leverage points against ICE corporate enablers. Stand With Minnesota has even more substantive information on who to contact and how, including a spreadsheet with detailed information about specific hotels that are housing ICE agents.

STEP 2: Call the businesses helping ICE to let them know they are no longer getting your consumer dollars because of their actions.

The following companies are serving as ICE’s corporate cronies in Minnesota—and these are national and international entities, so you can bet that if they’re collaborating with ICE in Minnesota, they’re doing it in other cities and states across the nation:

Call Enterprise Car Rental: 855.266.9565. ICE is renting their cars.

Call Hilton Hotels: 703.883.1000 or 888.446.6677. ICE is renting rooms from them.

Call Wyndham Hotels: 800.466.1589. ICE agents are sleeping there, too.

Call Target: 612.304.6073. Tell them to stop allowing ICE to use their parking lots as staging areas for their activities and to stop letting ICE into their stores to harass and arrest their employees and their customers.

Call Home Depot: 866.589.0690. Same as Target; see above.

Scan Stand with Minnesota’s list for additional calls to hotels where ICE agents are being housed.

Support Local MN & Twin Cities Metro Area Organizations

UPDATED! Emergency Community Support Fund (ECSF), Richfield Leadership Network. One of a number of Minneapolis area community initiaves working to raise rent money for families in need, this particular group paid rent for 31 families in February. (That data came directly from a local friend.) However, despite the possible news that ICE’s siege on Minnesota may be waning, so many people and businesses have been struggling for so many weeks, ECSF expects an even higher need for rent assistance for March. Please share widely and donate if you’re able.

UPDATED! Richfield High School (RHS) Food Shelf. Each week, local community members of this Minneapolis suburb continue to feed and support 200 families through the local high school. Monetary donations enable the RHS Food Shelf to purchase more food, toiletries, and paper products to meet exponential increases in need. Unfortunately, there’s no easy online link to donate to this cause. Checks payable to Richfield Public Schools (with “Food Shelf” on the check memo line) can be mailed to Richfield High School, 7001 Harriet Avenue South, Richfield, MN 55423.

UPDATED! Immigrant Defense Network (IDN). Founded in 2025, IDN is comprise of over 90 immigrant, labor, legal, faith, and community organizations, all dedicated to the constitutional rights of Minnesota immigrant communities across Minnesota. Resources include trusted information, referrals to legal support, and coordinated educational activities.

UPDATED! Minnesota’s Immigration Legal Services Hub. This hub of legal organizations, which includes The Advocates for Human Rights, Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services, and Volunteer Lawyers Network, offers free legal clinics every week throughout the state for immigration cases.

Isuroon. This non-profit offers halal food assistance and other direct support to the Somali community via four locations—in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Roseville, and Burnsville.

Joyce Uptown Foodshelf. This non-profit’s mission is to distribute food to those in need, with respect and dignity, and they are currently doing collections for those who can’t leave their homes.

Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC). An all-volunteer, grassroots, multiracial, and multinational immigrant rights mass-movement organization, MIRAC fights for legalization for all, an end to immigration raids and deportations, an end to all anti-immigrant laws, and full equality in all areas of life. RELATED: Minneapolis-based Back of Beyond Press created an awesome “HERE IN THE NORTH, WE CRUSH OUR ICE” poster; they’re giving some away for free for local folks to use, and for folks out of state, they’re for sale on Etsy, with all proceeds going to MIRAC.

Módulo de Información de Recursos y Apoyo (MIRA). MIRA’s mission is to empower Latino families, children, and individuals in South Hennepin County by promoting their educational, economic, and social development. MIRA continues to be the only minority led, culturally, and linguistically relevant agency serving the diverse population in Richfield. 

Neighborhood House. Through housing, food, education programs, and more, Noeighborhood House in St. Paul aims to help people gain the skills, knowledge, and confidence to thrive in diverse communities. The organization has supported immigrants and refugees on St. Paul’s West Side for over 128 years. From its website: “We believe everyone deserves to feel safe and celebrated in our shared community, and we know that our neighborhoods are stronger and richer because of your cultural strengths and contributions. We stand with you today and say, ‘You are welcome here.’”

Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota (ILCM). ILCM provides free, rapid-response help and immigration legal representation to low-income immigrants and refugees in Minnesota and North Dakota. 

Minneapolis Mutual Aid. This clearinghouse of mutual aid has compiled a lengthy list of groups offering help that can use support for their work, including links to numerous local organizations on the front lines, food relief, rent relief, school- and church-based help and resources, and more.

Local businesses like Pow Wow Grounds, Smitten Kitten, and Twin Cities Leather are coordinating getting donated food and supplies to those who are unable to leave their homes, and these businesses can use financial support themselves in order to keep doing the community work they’re doing.

Stand with Minnesota provides a lengthier list of organizations and groups that need support, organized by category (rent relief, food, etc.).

Art Price Studio has been doing free printing of designed anti-ICE messaging and dispensing info on when the next print runs are happening via Instagram. They provide the designs, the ink, and the onsite print production; locals just need to bring donated t-shirts to the studio. (Art Price says cotton tees work best.)

Monitor Local Media & Grassroots Organizing Info Sources

Sahan Journal • Minnesota Reformer • MPR News •. Mercado Media • MinnPost • Racket MN • 50501 Movement • Defend 612 • Guerilla Gorillas • Minnesotan testimonies via Stand with Minnesota

Get Ready to Support Your Own Community

ICE raids have been taking place in cities nationwide, including Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and the Twin Cities, and targeted assaults in progressive urban areas are likely to continue during 2026. The people of Minnesota have demonstrated again and again these last weeks how essential grassroots organizing, preparation, and effective communication are to resistance efforts. Some useful resources for getting ready in your own community include:

Similarly, here are some organizing tips from a Twin Cities friend:

  • Organize a community Signal chat—identify notaries, translators, drivers. A beginner’s guide to Signal can be found here.
  • Introduce yourself to vulnerable neighbors to establish trusting relationships.
  • Set up neighborhood food pantry with meal kits and diapers.
  • Pressure local governments to ticket ICE agents for traffic violations and ensure city property can’t be used for ICE staging.
  • Contact local schools to find out if they have stated to organize perimeter patrols or transportation.
  • Make it known to local hotels that they will be picketed if they allow agents to stay there.
  • Have your phone with you at all times for recording, and have your head on a swivel as you walk around your neighborhood.
  • Start noticing cars that belong and are familiar so that you can also start noticing cars that don’t belong.