Minneapolis, MN – On December 8, despite subzero temperatures and snow, 300 people gathered at Mayday Plaza for a rally in solidarity with the Somali and Afghan communities in Minneapolis. The event was organized by the Free Palestine Coalition, with a wide range of grass roots organizations participating in the event.

The event was organized in response to the racist rhetoric that has been directed at the Somali community from the Trump administration. While ICE has been active in Minnesota since at least June of this year, the Trump administration has repeatedly threatened to direct ICE agents to also focus on detaining members of the Somali community. The Twin Cities has the largest concentration of Somalis in the United States.

“It’s been an incredibly emotionally taxing time,” said Malika Dahir, one of the event organizers. “We are a small community in a large landscape of the United States and in Minnesota quietly living our lives, and now we’re on a national stage getting national exposure being identified and targeted based on how you look. I’m also getting reports from our community members of people who just look Somali, whether they’re Ethiopian or Kenyan – getting picked up and targeted.”

The event happened less than 12 hours after a mosque in Prior Lake caught fire, although the cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Montana Hirsch, an organizer with the MN Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) stated, “We did have a recent win – Jacob Frey made an executive order last week that said ICE cannot use public parking lots or ramps to stage raids! This is not Frey doing this out of the goodness of his own heart. This was won after MIRAC and other immigrant rights groups and all of us fought for this. We sat in Frey’s office, got thousands of petition signatures and demanded this! This is a win that only happened because we fought for it!”

Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of the Minnesota branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said, “We have heard multiple – and it’s been reported by local channels as well – of incidents of sexual assault, incidents of police brutality that has been committed by ICE through this operation. We are learning of family separation of children, of U.S. lawful residents. We believe this is the tactic of the ICE operation.”

Protesters expressed commitment to continue to protest if these attacks continue.

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