ANONYMOUS LETTER FROM A MINNESOTA EDUCATOR ON THE GROUND

I am a lifelong resident of Minneapolis and an educator who teaches at both a high school and a college here in the city. I have friends, family, colleagues, and students across the political spectrum. I am writing as an American citizen who loves this country and is deeply frightened by what I am witnessing in my city. Before becoming an educator, I worked with Homeland Security in the early 2000s as a theft and fraud investigator for a major insurance company. I had direct exposure to federal law enforcement at that time. What is happening now does not resemble the agencies or officers I knew then. The ICE agents operating here appear poorly trained, are acting with little oversight, and are being encouraged to treat residents as enemies. They are operating with total impunity. That should concern everyone. There is widespread disinformation about what is happening in Minnesota. I am asking people, regardless of politics, to stop relying on national pundits and political talking points and instead look to local reporting and firsthand accounts from people who live here. What is happening is real, ongoing, and deeply disturbing. I am not a protester. I have not attended demonstrations. I am in classrooms and on campuses every day. What follows is what I have personally witnessed, along with what has been consistently reported to me by colleagues, students, parents, and neighbors with a wide range of political beliefs. Here is what I have seen and experienced: - Female friends who are U.S. citizens aggressively restrained, choked, forced into vehicles, and detained. - Native American individuals detained, including citizens and members of sovereign tribal nations. - ICE agents staking out high school and college campuses, then denying their presence to administrators and local law enforcement. - I have been followed for miles after leaving a school parking lot by an ICE agent who only turned away after prolonged tailing. - Emergency sirens at levels I have never experienced living here, including during 9/11, the 2008 Republican National Convention, and the George Floyd uprising. - ICE agents running residential license plates, pulling personal data, and approaching people already knowing their names and addresses. - Agents positioned outside churches, schools, and grocery stores, blocking traffic, yelling at residents, and intimidating EVERYONE, including people who are not protesting. - White residents being offered money or “protection” in exchange for informing on neighbors labeled as non-citizens or “leftist protesters.” - Door-to-door activity in Minneapolis and St. Paul, with local news now running nightly segments on what to do if ICE comes to your door. - School buses rerouted to pick up students at individual homes because children are too afraid to walk. - Parents emailing me asking what will happen to their children if they are detained. - School administrators stated that local police will not intervene if ICE violates rights on private school property without a warrant. - Reports from detainees of no bathroom privacy, including officers watching women use the restroom. - Arrests occurring on highways, with abandoned vehicles left behind, causing multiple accidents. - There are thousands of ICE agents operating here. It feels like an occupation. - Residents have also documented aerial surveillance during enforcement activity, including drones over neighborhoods and public spaces. Community-recorded video shows drones hovering while individuals on the ground are followed or detained. Regardless of stated purpose, the effect is widespread fear, self-censorship, and the feeling of being monitored simply for existing in public. What makes this even more frightening is the complete failure of political leadership. Republican lawmakers from rural Minnesota openly cheer this enforcement without concern for the harm it is causing to Minnesota families, children, and communities. Democratic leaders speak about stopping it in press conferences but are not on the ground and are not backing their words with action. They return to their homes each night while families here live in fear.