When I was a kid in South Los Angeles in the 1980s, immigration raids were a fact of life. I remember the fear when U.S. Customs and Customs Enforcement ICE (then called INS) came through. The sudden disappearances, families torn apart, the silence that fell over our neighborhood as Brown and immigrant families tried to become invisible. Then came Proposition 187 in the mid-1990s, California’s attempt to deny public services to undocumented immigrants. My family, like so many others, lived in constant fear: fear of seeking healthcare, fear of going to school, fear of simply existing in public spaces.
The same racist targeting drove Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota. For ten weeks, over 3,000 federal agents occupied Minneapolis, targeting predominantly Somali, Latino, Indigenous, Southeast Asian, and Black neighborhoods. They killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti. They arrested over 4,000 people. They used tear gas and pepper spray on community members who spoke up. They terrorized entire communities, leaving parents afraid to take kids to school, workers afraid to go to work, and families afraid to seek medical care.
On January 23, 2026, Minnesota showed us what collective power looks like. In subzero temperatures with wind chills reaching -30 degrees, tens of thousands of people took to the streets for the first general strike in the US in 80 years. Over 700 businesses closed. One in four Minnesota voters either participated directly or had a close family member who did.
Now, Tom Homan has announced that Operation Metro Surge is ending and federal agents will begin leaving the state. Despite what Homan and the administration say, this is a direct result of the powerful movement built in Minnesota.
As I watched Minnesota’s ten-week uprising, I recognized that same fear from my childhood. But I also saw something just as familiar: communities transforming fear into power, isolation into solidarity, and racist state violence into a catalyst for change.
What made January 23 historic wasn’t just its scale—it was who led it and how they built power. The movement was anchored by organizations rooted in the communities most acutely targeted: Somali, Latino, Indigenous, Southeast Asian, Black, and other communities of color. They built a coalition that understood both the acute racial targeting and the broader threat to everyone. The Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation AFL-CIO endorsed the strike. One hundred clergy were arrested at the airport in civil disobedience.
Environmental organizations like the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and CEED closed our offices because we recognize that the forces attacking immigrants are also attacking environmental protections. Art, which has always been a form of expression and culture for so many of us, had an important role during this time as well. We saw posters during the protest as a form of resistance and hope. Our staff supported the creation and distribution of “WE ARE FAMILY / STAND WITH IMMIGRANTS” prints from a local artist during the protest, and we will continue to pursue ways to support local artists and community members to share this message in a way that supports our community and creative expression. We are also supporting the 3 Cordilleras Project, an art initiative specializing in community engagement and mural creation in the Twin Cities. They are developing and creating mosaic kits for Latinx/Hispanic communities affected by ICE on the East Side of Saint Paul, Powderhorn/Phillips neighborhoods in Minneapolis. These kits will be delivered to their homes, allowing affected communities to access a creative activity that will focus their energy on learning something new, relaxing, and finding some joy during these times in a safe place.
The movement showed what happens when communities led by people of color and those most acutely affected build coalitions that don’t erase the targeting but instead make it visible, name it, and organize everyone to fight it together. That’s when power shifts.
That power, rooted in the leadership of Black, Brown, Southeast Asian, Indigenous, and immigrant communities, is what forced ICE to end its surge.
Now, Minnesota’s families and communities will begin to heal from ten weeks of occupation. But they will also continue to demand justice for the violence brought by this administration. The resistance continues. Our communities continue to face ICE attacks and continue to advocate for the abolition of ICE and a system that puts our communities first.
The fight continues. For every community about to see ICE agents arrive or ramp up, in LA, New York, Portland, Chicago, Charlotte, and cities across the country, Minnesota affirms the blueprint: build coalitions led by the communities most directly targeted. Center racial justice. Use economic power. Support your neighbors and mutual aid efforts around the country. Share resources. Refuse false divisions between documented and undocumented, between immigrant and citizen, between environmental and social justice.
CEED’s vision of a just transition where communities control their own local economies and labor, where green jobs pay living wages with union protections, requires that Black, Brown, Indigenous, and immigrant community members can participate fully and safely. This means ending the racist intimidation and deportation machine and the practice of treating these communities as dispensable.
At the same time, the Trump administration targets frontline communities with violence, it eliminates protections from pollutio,n and pulls back historic investments that would help these communities build a healthier, safer, and more prosperous future. We will not stop fighting for this vision. We will learn the lessons from this moment and help build the power necessary to win it.