Minneapolis, MN – On October 28, members of the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) held a rally outside Minneapolis City Hall, demanding stronger protections for immigrant communities. The demonstration culminated in a sit-in at Mayor Jacob Frey’s office, where 11 MIRAC members and supporters refused to leave until the mayor publicly committed to supporting their Real Sanctuary Now campaign.

The campaign calls for a significant overhaul of Minneapolis’s current “separation ordinance” – a law meant to prohibit collaboration between city employees and federal immigration enforcement agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). The existing ordinance is insufficient and has repeatedly failed to protect immigrants and the Minneapolis community from federal overreach.

The campaign is a response to the militarized federal raid in South Minneapolis on June 3, during which witnesses reported seeing the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) assisting ICE and other federal agencies.

In response, MIRAC’s Real Sanctuary Now campaign has outlined four key demands to strengthen the law. First, no collusion: no information sharing between local law enforcement and federal agencies; second, no crowd control: no local law enforcement cooperation with ICE, HSI and other federal agencies, including supportive roles like crowd control and police taping. Third, no coverups: no face coverings to obscure federal agents’ identities; federal agents must clearly display their agency association and identify themselves with name plates and badge numbers. And fourth, real consequences: punitive measures for local law enforcement agents or agencies found to be in violation of the city’s separation ordinance.

The sit-in participants arrived at the mayor’s office at 2:30 to deliver hundreds more signatures from MIRAC’s campaign petition to add to the thousand plus that had been brought to the office previously. From this time until approximately 12 a.m., the protesters held strong on their demands and were only removed after being arrested by the Minneapolis Police Department and held at Hennepin County Jail where the final participants were not released until past 7 a.m. the next morning.

Outside City Hall, hundreds of supporters gathered in solidarity with those occupying the mayor’s office. Demonstrators emphasized the urgency of the campaign as the threat of a military occupation is more likely every day. As the sit-in continued throughout the night, participants called on Mayor Frey to meet with MIRAC leaders and commit to publicly endorsing the proposed changes.

Organizer Sophie Breen stated, “In Minneapolis, we saw how Mayor Frey reacted when ICE came to town. Mayor Frey literally got a thank you letter from ICE for his coordination with them on June 3. That is not the kind of leadership we need! We need a mayor who will not hide behind deleted text messages. So, Mayor Frey, if you are not willing to work with us, your time is up. Our students and families deserve better!” The mayor’s office did not immediately issue a statement, and activists say they plan to continue pressuring city officials until their demands are met.

Halfway through the sit-in, a mayoral debate was aired live between Frey and the top challenging candidates Omar Fateh, Dewayne Davis and Jazz Hampton. MIRAC’s demands calling for accountability of ICE agents were specifically named as a topic for the candidates to address.

Frey insisted that the proposed policy changes are impossible to implement, as he claims they would create even more dangerous situations in the event of local police arresting ICE agents who violate city ordinances, citing that “they have bigger guns than we do.” This line of reasoning is congruent with MPD activity under Frey’s administration which includes several high profile police killings of Black community members such as George Floyd and Amir Locke.

Fateh, Davis and Hampton all reaffirmed their support for MIRAC’s Real Sanctuary Now campaign, expressing discontent around how immigration has been handled by Frey since Trump began his second term as president and promising to work more shoulder-to-shoulder with community members who are most impacted. The sit-in was not raised as a topic of discussion during the debate.

For MIRAC, the action represents part of a long-term fight to hold Minneapolis accountable to its claims of equity, safety, and justice for all residents regardless of immigration status.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #ImmigrantRights #MIRAC #Mayor #Frey #Feature

Minneapolis, MN – On October 16, the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) invited the leading Minneapolis mayoral candidates to a press conference to explain how they will protect the city from violent overreach by ICE and other federal agencies. Candidates Senator Omar Fateh, DeWayne Davis and Jazz Hampton all attended and spoke. Invitations were sent to Mayor Jacob Frey and Brenda Short, who did not attend the event.

The event was part of MIRAC’s Real Sanctuary Now campaign, which aims to strengthen the city’s separation ordinance. The law ostensibly prohibits collaboration between municipal employees and federal immigration enforcement agencies, but its limits were highlighted by a militarized raid in South Minneapolis on June 3, during which residents witnessed the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) assisting ICE and other federal agencies in blocking off the scene and conducting crowd control.

In place of the old ordinance, the Real Sanctuary Now campaign advocates for a stronger law, with four key demands.

MIRAC’s Real Sanctuary Now campaign advocates for an overhaul of the current separation ordinance and stronger protection for our Minneapolis community through four key demands. First, no collusion: no information sharing between local law enforcement and federal agencies. Second, no crowd control: no local law enforcement cooperation with ICE, HSI and other federal agencies, including supportive roles like crowd control and police taping. Third, no coverups: no face coverings to obscure federal agents’ identities; federal agents must clearly display their agency association and identify themselves with name plates and badge numbers. And fourth, real consequences: punitive measures for local law enforcement agents or agencies found to be in violation of the city’s separation ordinance.

MIRAC has been circulating these demands in a petition both online and in person, garnering more than 1500 signatures from the local community in less than two months. Members of the organization delivered some 1100 of those signatures, collected in just the first month of the campaign, to Mayor Jacob Frey’s office on October 6. The mayor has yet to respond.

The three candidates who attended the press conference addressed what they plan to do to strengthen the separation ordinance that exists in Minneapolis to prevent the Minneapolis Police Department from working with ICE in addition to whether they would sign onto MIRAC’s full list of Real Sanctuary Now demands. Fateh, Davis, and Hampton all announced that they will support and officially sign onto the demands.

Davis went as far to say that if elected as mayor, he “will organize the entire city enterprise to be looking for every opportunity to resist whatever comes from Washington D.C. when it comes to our immigrant neighbors.” This is in stark contrast to the statement from mayor Frey’s office saying that “he has problems with some of the demands,” according to Minnesota Public Radio News, and therefore will not sign onto MIRAC’s campaign.

MIRAC member Myrka Zambrano reminded the attendees of the press conference that the leadership of Minneapolis “Do not serve a federal agency, they do not serve a king. They serve us, their constituency. They have a responsibility to us, and we will hold them accountable.”

MIRAC plans to keep pressure on the top mayoral candidates until election day on November 4. Follow @miracmn on social media platforms to keep up with future actions relating to this campaign.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #ImmigrantRights #MIRAC #Mayor

This November Minneapolis residents will once again vote for the next mayor of Minneapolis. Incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey has long been a darling of landlords, business owners and the owning class in our city. Frey not only won the last mayoral election but was voted in under a “Strong Mayor” charter amendment, expanding his sweeping powers over the Minneapolis Police Department to all other departments in the city.

Frey has used these powers, not to advance people’s initiatives brought to the city council or to increase police accountability after the murders of George Floyd and Amir Locke, but to be a stumbling block in the way of the people’s movements for liberation. In 2024, he attempted to use his veto power to block the city council’s ceasefire resolution written in solidarity with the people of Palestine. He continues to stand in the way of the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute’s purchase of the Roof Depot superfund site, a purchase overwhelmingly supported by residents. Frey has also empowered his police department to assist ICE agents in terrorizing our immigrant community, as they did during the federal raid on Lake Street this past June.

Frey’s coziness with capitalists and business interests has clearly harmed the working-class and poor residents of Minneapolis. He blocked the rent control ballot question in 2021, vetoed the establishment of a Labor Standards Board last year, and vetoed a minimum wage for rideshare workers. Despite campaigning on ending homelessness in Minneapolis, Mayor Frey’s response to the unhoused has been unimaginably cruel and ineffective. In 2025, Frey claimed there were only 27 unsheltered homeless people in Minneapolis. This is easily debunked by just looking around the city, and illustrates his lack of concern for our most vulnerable neighbors. Additionally, Frey’s policy of encampment sweeps that interrupt access to services and destroy people’s belongings makes it even harder for loved ones and case workers to help unhoused residents.

Frey also campaigned on public safety, but his track record on addressing police violence is shamefully bad. Amir Locke was killed just a few months after Frey’s promise to end no-knock warrants. He failed to use his power over MPD to fire Locke’s murderer Mark Hanneman, leading to Hanneman’s promotion to trainer, which was only corrected after community backlash. He has allowed Chief O’Hara to keep officers with multiple complaints and lawsuits in high-ranking positions, where they violate MPD protocols. Because Frey does not support officers’ paying for personal liability insurance coverage, our taxes continue to foot the bill for settlements after MPD abuses or kills residents. To address police brutality, instead of supporting common sense initiatives like community control of police, Frey creates symbolic positions like the Public Safety Commissioner, a city job with a six-figure salary that serves to rubber-stamp and excuse MPD’s misconduct. He also created the Community Commission on Police Oversight, a powerless review board whose main purpose is to redirect community outrage following police violence to a body with no power to discipline officers or change policy.

We at Freedom Road Twin Cities do not put our faith in electoral politics and recognize that there are limits to the people’s ability to exert pressure on the systems built to subjugate us. But we also know that elections are an important arena of struggle and that we must fight for the best conditions possible, so that we can join cities like Chicago in beating back Trump’s attacks. Jacob Frey’s tenure as mayor has shown us that he refuses to follow the will of his constituents. His recent move to pressure the DFL to rescind the endorsement of progressive opponent Omar Fateh is yet another example of this. He has already caved to the pressures of the Trump administration by allowing MPD to collaborate with ICE and has adopted the same racist and dehumanizing approach to homelessness and poverty. With a reactionary would-be dictator like Trump in office, Jacob Frey is the last person we need in charge.

By contrast, state Senator Omar Fateh has long been a strong voice supporting the people’s movements and the working class. He has publicly stood with victims of police brutality and supports public safety initiatives like community control of police, which would give residents the ability to elect a civilian oversight body with real power over MPD. He was instrumental in advancing a living wage for rideshare workers as well as supporting free college education for Minnesotans. He also partnered with community members and legislators to introduce the North Star Act, which would prohibit state and local law enforcement from aiding ICE. Perfect politicians don’t exist, but Fateh has shown a willingness to work with and listen to his constituents in a way few candidates have. We believe that our movements can make real progress under a mayor who doesn’t put all his energy into sabotaging our efforts.

FRSO Twin Cities is joining the people of Minneapolis in calling for a new mayor who is willing to work with progressives and movement organizers rather than undermine them. Whether residents support Omar Fateh, Jazz Hampton or DeWayne Davis, it is critical that they don’t rank Frey anywhere on their ballot.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #FRSOTC #Mayor #PeoplesStruggles