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.

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