Minneapolis, MN – Immigrant rights activists demanded “Sanctuary now!” at the Minneapolis City Council meeting Oct. 6. The activists gathered outside of City Hall then made their presence felt in the City Council chamber, holding their banner and signs at the start of the council meeting.

The visibility action was part of an ongoing campaign demanding that the Minneapolis City Council quickly pass the Sanctuary Platform. Adopting the platform’s 13 demands would deepen Minneapolis' commitment to standing with immigrant communities that are under attack.

The Sanctuary Platform was initiated by the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), and has been endorsed by many immigrant rights organizations, unions, social justice and religious groups. It has already attracted support from some current city council members as well as several of the candidates running for city council and mayor in the November election.

The platform was launched with a community press conference before the prior City Council meeting on Sept. 20. A day later, Hennepin County Sheriff Stanek sent a 3-page letter to all City Council members that can be read as both defensive and threatening. Stanek’s close cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the county jail is a target of some of the platform’s demands. Stanek’s letter says, among other things, “there is no sanctuary for criminals anywhere in Hennepin County” and brags that in 2016 his jail arranged for ICE to talk to approximately 2700 people detained in the county jail.

Stanek’s letter was made public by Minneapolis City Council member Cam Gordon (Green Party). That has focused wider community and media attention on Sheriff Stanek’s close cooperation with ICE that results in many deportations, directly undercutting the Minneapolis’ stated goal of being a safe city for immigrants.

Activists at the action vowed to keep the pressure on the city council and the mayor to unite against Stanek and Trump’s attacks on immigrants.

#MinneapolisMN #MIRAc #MinnesotaImmigrantRightsActionCommittee #SheriffStanek

Minneapolis, MN – Nearly 2000 protesters, many Native American, rallied at city hall here, Oct. 28, demanding that Hennepin County Sheriff Stanek immediately withdraw sheriff department personnel from North Dakota, where they have been deployed against demonstrators who are fighting to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline.

About 30 sheriff department personnel have been sent to North Dakota, where they have been photographed carrying out brutal attacks on demonstrators who are defending water resources and sacred land.

#MinneapolisMN #IndigenousPeoples #EnvironmentalJustice #SheriffStanek #StandingRockNation #DakotaAccessPipeline #NODAPL

Minneapolis, MN – On June 11, Hennepin County Sheriff Stanek announced that the Hennepin County Jail will no longer honor Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer requests, or “ICE holds”, which have resulted in countless deportations against immigrants who are guilty of no crime. The announcement is an about-face for Sheriff Stanek, who in the past has supported close police-immigration collaboration and has campaigned for harsher immigration enforcement in the state legislature. The change in policy for Minnesota’s largest jail follows four years of grassroots pressure from the No More Deportations campaign organized by the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), as well as pressure from many other community organizations, lawyers, and from immigrant families who have spoken out about their experience with deportation.

Immigrant rights activists around the country are targeting sheriffs to break ties with ICE as one way to limit the effects of the disastrous “Secure Communities” deportation program that was imposed nationwide in 2010 and caused an unprecedented wave of deportations. Since 2009 when President Obama took office, 2 million people have been deported, more than under any other administration in U.S. history. Most of those deportations happen through county jails as a result of “Secure Communities” and related ICE programs. Recent court rulings have indicated that ICE holds may be unconstitutional since they cause local jails to detain people for an undetermined amount of time without charge waiting for ICE to arrive to question them about their immigration status. These questions about whether ICE holds are even legal has given further momentum to these anti-deportation campaigns, and increasing numbers of sheriffs are announcing their refusal to honor ICE hold requests anymore.

Since 2010 the No More Deportations campaign has demanded this change, organizing dozens of protests outside the Hennepin County Jail and Sheriff Stanek’s office, as well as educational events about deportations and ‘know your rights’ trainings at churches, community centers, and campuses. MIRAC also helped form a coalition with a broad array of organizations concerned about deportations. Just last week MIRAC protested outside Sheriff Stanek’s reelection campaign fundraising event in downtown Minneapolis, while three activists also attempted to respectfully raise the issue inside the event but were forcibly removed. These grassroots efforts as well as the recent court rulings and electoral factors (last week a Minneapolis Police Department Deputy Chief announced his intention to run against Stanek in November) seem to have converged to influence Sheriff Stanek to reverse course and loosen his jail’s ties with ICE.

According to Brad Sigal of the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), “This is an important victory against deportations that will help prevent the separation of some families, but the struggle is not over. We will continue to fight for an end to deportations in Minnesota and nationally. We call on Ramsey County Sheriff Bostrom to follow Sheriff Stanek and immediately stop cooperating with ICE holds in Ramsey County. And we call on President Obama to take immediate executive action to expand deferred action to stop deportations nationally.”

#MinneapolisMN #MIRAc #NoMoreDeportationsCampaign #SheriffStanek

Minneapolis, MN – Chanting, “Stanek says deportation! We say no!” 30 immigrant rights activists protested outside Hennepin County Sheriff Richard Stanek’s reelection campaign fundraiser here June 4. Protesters marched around the busy downtown intersection of Nicollet and 9th Street for an hour, while chanting, handing out flyers and engaging the public. Stanek’s fundraiser was inside at the Minneapolis Downtown Council office. Two activists tried to enter Sheriff Stanek’s fundraiser but were immediately confronted by police, threatened with arrest and kicked out.

The protest was organized by the No More Deportations campaign of the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC). Protesters were highly visible marching in the crowded Nicollet Mall area, educating the public about Sheriff Stanek’s role in deporting immigrants and separating families.

More immigrants are deported from Sheriff Stanek’s Hennepin County jail than any other in Minnesota. Stanek has also lobbied for anti-immigrant legislation at the state legislature. Stanek is running for reelection in November so he has been campaigning in many communities, including in the Latino community, smiling and waving on a float in the Cinco de Mayo parade on Lake Street.

Activists with MIRAC’s No More Deportations campaign say they will continue to pressure Sheriff Stanek until he agrees to stop cooperating with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement’s ‘hold requests’ on immigrants in the Hennepin County jail. The activists see this as a way to prevent deportations that separate families. 2 million people have been deported since President Obama took office in 2009, more than Bush deported during his entire eight years in office, and more than any other president in U.S. history.

While immigrant rights activists continue to push President Obama to take executive action to stop deportations nationally, campaigns are gaining momentum on the local level to pressure sheriffs to stop cooperating with ICE in detaining and deporting so many people. These campaigns have been successful in several major cities and counties around the country.

On June 4, the same day as the Minneapolis protest, there was a victory in San Diego county in California where Sheriff Bill Gore said in a statement, “The Sheriff's Department will no longer hold someone past their release date based on an ICE detainer alone.” A recent federal court decision has bolstered activists’ efforts to get local sheriffs to stop honoring ICE hold requests. The court decision held that a local jail had violated the Fourth Amendment by granting the detainer request without probable cause or a court-approved warrant.

#MinneapolisMN #Deportation #MinnesotaImmigrantRightsActionCommittee #NoMoreDeportationsCampaign #SheriffStanek #ICEHolds

Minneapolis, MN – A Valentine’s Day protest here called on Hennepin County Sheriff Stanek to stop cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in deporting immigrants via the Hennepin County jail. Protesters gathered at noon outside the jail and then marched to Sheriff Stanek’s office inside City Hall. The protest was organized by MIRAc’s No More Deportations campaign and endorsed by several other organizations.

In the Valentine’s Day spirit, protesters sang songs to the tune of Heartbreaker by Pat Benetar and Don’t Go Breaking My Heart by Elton John and Kiki Dee, with lyrics reworded to make Sheriff Stanek the ‘heartbreaker’ for deporting people and separating families.

Speakers included Jeff Carlson, who spoke of community mobilization in the face of several recent deportations in the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis; Eder Alarcon of the No More Deportations campaign who spoke of his ongoing struggle against deportation; David Cruz of Occupy Homes and Katie Hatt, who is running for a Hennepin County Commissioner seat and who expressed her support for stopping deportations.

Protesters left a large Valentine’s Day heart at Sheriff Stanek’s office with messages calling on him to stop breaking our hearts by stopping deportations and the separation of families.

#MinneapolisMN #NoMoreDeportationsCampaign #SheriffStanek #ValentinesDay